


Castro

by Ellaaashima



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships, Tags Are Hard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:01:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 28,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23231374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellaaashima/pseuds/Ellaaashima
Summary: The Castro family is well known for their knowledge of magic. They are a family who uses strong magic for good. The four remaining people with the Castro blood have been through quite a lot while growing up, and they continue to face trials that will really test their bond with each other.A control freak, a cursed boy, an introvert, and one overprotective brother. Surely, Fairy Tail will be more extra than ever with these four around.DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN FAIRY TAIL AND ITS CHARACTERS. THEY ALL BELONG TO HIRO MASHIMA, THE RIGHTFUL OWNER.
Relationships: Sting Eucliffe/Original Female Character(s), Wendy Marvell/Original Male Character(s)
Kudos: 6





	1. Going Home

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this around a yr ago? In wattpad. But Ive decided to move it here just because I like the format of AO3 better.
> 
> Anyway, this basically is a FT fic with my own twists with original characters. 
> 
> Enjoy c:

In a village at the Southern part of the country of Ishgar, there journeyed four mages for a mission to accomplish. Two males and two females stood in front of a entrance of a forest just by the edge of the village, staying still but only for a moment.

The youngest, a pink haired female, cracked her knuckles with a smirk plastered on her face. "You sure that this is the place, Alice?" She questions her older sister, not sparing her a glance at all.

The older sister, and second among the siblings, nodded her head curtly. "Have faith in me, dear younger sister."

"Well, what else are you waiting for, Alice?" The oldest asks quite impatiently. He rolls his neck, and readies himself to run ahead when their plan is put to action.

Alice takes a deep breath, reaches her hand straight in front of her with her palm wide open, and closes her eyes shut. " _ **Deactivate**_ ," she chants quietly to herself.

With that one single and simply word, a magic force had hit them and their surroundings. Suddenly, an invisible barrier is deactivated by Alice's spell, and instead of a forest a two storey high building replaced it.

The front doors of the building were forcefully opened by seemingly nothing and no one. The people inside the building gasped and stood up in shock. They did not expect that someone, much less a group of people, would discover their place.

"Which one of you is the guild master?" Maki, the pink haired female, confidently asks with a loud voice. She scrutinizes them, trying to figure out which one of them is the person they're looking for in the first place.

Beside Maki, stood a calm looking blond. He massages his neck with one hand, and closes one eye. "Just give up, so this'll be a easy task for us," he says, knowing full well that it would provoke most, if not all, of them. 

"Now that'll surely motivate them to crush us. Thanks for that, Blaze," Alice sarcastically says with a roll of her eyes. She's already cracking her knuckles when she sees some of the guild members about to charge at her.

"As if they can, though," Blaze chuckles to himself. He reaches for the sword behind his back, and easily plays with it in his hand as if mocking their opponents.

"Take the first attack, Arian," Alice commands, taking a step back. She glances at her older brother, nodding his way to give him the signal.

Arian smirks confidently, and he doesn't waste any time on running towards a group of guild members. He punches one of them with a fiery fist, sending some mages around them back as well. "Don't mind if I do," he utters to himself.

Maki moves forward as well, refusing to lose to her siblings. Several mages surround her, thinking that they could defeat her because she looked young and weak, and they prepared to attack the female with their weapons and magic.

"Don't underestimate me," Maki began, taking a stance with her legs shoulder width apart and her arms spread out, "For I control this space!" She exclaims loudly, and a magic circle appears beneath her.

The mages within her magic circle panics, not sure what to do. Then, the floor under them began to shake and creak. The wooden surface breaks, and some of them lose their footing, and the soil and rock alike float in the air and covered all those within the magic circle.

Blaze shakes his head, watching this unfold. "There she goes again with her line," he sighs exasperatedly. He rubs the nape of his neck, giving the aura as if he didn't want to be doing this job at all.

The rest of the guild members who weren't occupied ran towards the other two who weren't attacking them. Alice looks at her younger brother, and she smiles when she sees him take a serious stance and the grip on his sword's handle tightens a tad bit more.

Dashing forward with his sword pointed, Blaze attacks all those he could reach. He attacks them, but not enough that they would die.

And while the three were busy with fending themselves, Alice looks around the area. They're only after the guild master, after all, and this'll all be over. She enters the guild hall without any fear, casting a magic barrier around herself to not be affacted by anything thrown her way. And as she walks, anyone who dared to block her path were either punched or covered in dirt or slashed with a sword. 

Alice continues on to walk up to the second floor, trying to find the guild master. She sees only one door, and she concludes that inside must be the guild master who's too scared to come out. 

Kicking the door open, Alice finds a young man sitting in front of several lacrimas that displayed the guild hall wherein his guild members and Alice's siblings were fighting. He turns his head in shock, but tries to hide it with a chuckle.

"Well, you must be ashamed of being a guild master that doesn't protect his own members," Alice states while cracking her knuckles in preparation if the man puts up a fight with her.

"They're merely pawns for me, really," the young man says, "But they're becoming useless to me, so why not let you and your group kill them for me?" He darkly chuckles in the end.

A dark aura surrounds Alice once she hears those words. She looks at the guild master in front of her, dead in the eyes, "Mere pawns, you say?"

He's startled by her dark aura and voice. The tension in the air suddenly becomes hot and he fans himself with his shirt, nervously chuckling to himself. "W-What's gotten you so mad?"

"The fact that you and your guild harm the innocent villagers nearby is enough for me to dislike you, but it seems like you've given me a real reason to hate you." Alice then takes a few steps forward, and she lowers her upper body so that she could be literally face to face with the guild master. Her red colored eyes seems to glow in the dimly lit room, and her scowl doesn't do anything but make her look even more scarier.

"Wh-Who exactly are you?" He then asks, gulping the lump in his throat. 

"Well, that's a good question," Alice darkly chuckles. "I suppose I should give my name or something of the sort as a remembrance, right? All you need to know, is that the Castro family of Fairy Tail sends their regards to you and your guild, Dark Horn."

"Castro?!" The man echoes in shock, eyes wide and mouth agape like a fish. "As in, the--.."

Alice touches the man's forehead with her index finger, lightly pushing him back while murmuring, " ** _Memory: forget_**."

Dark Horn's guild master falls asleep instantly. His back is leaning against his chair and he's snoring quite loudly. Alice sighs, and grabs the back of his top to drag him against the floor and out of the room. She, without mercy, throws his body unto the first floor to catch everyone's attention.

All those who were fighting halted, and diverted their attention to the sleeping figure of the man who was thrown to the floor.

Alice clears her throat, and the attention is then diverted to her in a matter of seconds. "Your master and I have come to an agreement. Leave this guild, and leave the village alone and do not attempt to go against the rules of the Magic Council so that you may not have the same fate as your master did. Do I make myself clear?" She looks at her enemies with a intimidating look on her face, her arms crossed over her torso.

"Do you honestly have to think about the answer?" Blaze asks with a sigh, using his sword to lightly touch the face of a mage beside him.

"You guys must be really dumb," Maki joined in, sighing while putting her hands behind her head leisurely.

"We could maybe knock some sense into them," Arian suggests to his other siblings. He prepares himself to attack again, setting his hands on fire.

Alice releases a heavy sigh, and her expression changes into a deeper scowl with squinted eyes glaring at them. "Leave, now," she commands them seriously.

Their enemies drop their weapons, running out of the guild without hesitation. 

Maki leans on a wall for support, tired and bruised up from all the fighting that she's done. "They put up quite the fight, didn't they?"

"Because you weren't trying to kill them," Blaze counters back while standing in front of his only little sister. 

"Our objective was to make them stop and run away, and we succeeded," Arian steps in, standing beside his brother cooly. He stretches his arm towards Maki, smiling warmly at her, "Hurry up, we have to get our reward and go home."

Taking ahold of his hand, Maki smiles back at him. "Yeah, let's go home, brother."

Alice appears not too far behind them, a small smile on her face. "I suppose we have done a good job. But it isn't over until we get back home safely," she tells them, walking out of the guild doors first.

"Stop trying to act cool, Alice!" Arian complains, going after his black haired sister. He softly knocks her head over, just enough for her to stagger a bit, and he laughs to himself at the sight.

"We did all the hard parts," Blaze pouts, "And all you did was knock that guy asleep!" He complains like a baby.

"I had more kills than you, though, Blaze." Maki soon follows after them as well, grinning from ear to ear because of her so called achievement.

"That doesn't matter," Blaze counters back, looking away. "I'm just saying that we mostly did the hard parts."

"All you did in this mission was fight them," Alice then says blankly. "But I found the hidden guild, and I removed their magic barrier as well."

"So, actually, Alice did all of the hard work," Maki laughs once she sees Blaze's embarrassed expression. 

"That doesn't matter now," Arian then says, getting all the attention to him. "What matters is that the job is finished, and we all had our parts to play. Good job, Alice, Blaze and Maki," he praises them by ruffling each of their hairs messily.

"You ruined my hair!" Alice complains loudly, swatting her older brother's hand away from her.

"Don't try to act cool, Arian!" Blaze glares at his only brother, finding him very annoying at the moment.

"Can't we just hurry up? I want to go home," Maki then whines, not fazed at all by Arian's praising.

"Why doesn't anyone appreciate my thanks?" Arian then becomes dejected, lowering his head.

Alice rolls her eyes at her siblings. She looks up at the sky, and sees that the sun is just about to set. "Let's hurry up before it gets dark," she says, "And so that I could heal your wounds."

"Race you all!" Blaze then begins to run from them, quickly putting quite the distance.

Maki follows suit, "No fair!"

Arian sees them, and sighs before looking at Alice. "I'll have to catch up, don't I?" He asks lowly.

"I'll give you a three seconds headstart, brother," Alice smirks, stopping in her tracks.

After having his headstart, Alice still manages to overtake Arian easily. She reaches the village third place after Blaze, panting and gasping for air from all the running.

After having their fun, the siblings got their reward from finishing the job. They then packed their belongings, and headed straight to the port to get a ship to take them to their destination.

Finally, they were going home. 

Home, to Fairy Tail.

However, they will be facing something they haven't expected at all.


	2. Return

Waking up to the breeze of Hargeon was a better feeling than the four siblings had realized. They quietly stood before the railings of the ship and stared at the sky, watching the sunrise in peace.

However, that peace had been ruined when one of them stretched their arms and released a loud and heavy sigh. "The air of Hargeon is amazing!" She exclaims whilst taking a deep breath.

Three pairs of red eyes stared at her in annoyance. They were all enjoying the peace and tranquility, but their youngest sibling just had to ruin it.

"You're too loud, Maki," Alice scolds the youngest quite harshly, still staring at her youngest sibling in irritation. It's rare to find peace nowadays, and just when they had it Maki had to ruin it.

"You're too loud, Maki," Maki herself says, mimicking her older sister to piss her off more. She makes a face, rolls her eyes, and then goes back to looking what's ahead of them.

Blaze and Arian watched their small banter with blank expressions. It's normal for the two females to fight, so they've gotten used to it over the years. Arian looks at the water beneath their ship, and he let's himself smile when he sees the reflection of the port not too far away.

"We're almost home, guys," Arian tells his siblings in a nostalgic manner. "Just two more train rides and we'll be home." 

"It's been awhile, hasn't it?" Blaze then decided to ask, though he didn't make any eye contact with his siblings.

"We've reached Hargeon Port! I repeat, we've reached Hargeon Port!" Out of the blue, the captain of the ship announces. "Everyone, get 'er asses ready to disembark!" He yells loud enough for everyone in the ship to hear his announcement.

Arian simple ruffles Blaze's hair with a chuckle, a wide smile on his face. "It sure has been awhile, brother, it sure has." He turns around, and makes way to his cabin to gather his belongings. 

Alice walks back to her cabin as well, having Maki trail behind her. Blaze gazes at the sky for a bit more, then he also returns to his own cabin to get his belongings. Once the ship had finally arrived at the Port, the four siblings thanked the captain, paid their expenses, and then gladly stepped off of the ship and unto land.

They all quietly walked side by side to the train station, wanting to get back to their guild without any more delays. While they were walking and proudly displaying their insignias, however, they heard a few voices whisper to each other as they passed by.

"Are those Fairy Tail mages?"

"You mean that guild with that Salamander guy?"

"They better not make another ruckus here."

Maki couldn't help but stifle a laugh when she heard the last comment. "Salamander, eh?" She questions while cheekily looking at her siblings, giving them a knowing look that they were all too familiar with.

"That Natsu..." Alice grumbled under her breath, pinching the bridge of her nose in agitation. She pictures the salmon haired dragon slayer in her head, and that only made her agitation grow more and more.

"He must be so famous in causing troubles that it reached Hargeon," Arian comments casually. "And he's fast about that, too, considering that it's only been almost three weeks since we've last been at the guild." 

By now they've reached the train station. Alice pays for all of their tickets to Magnolia, and they all take a booth for themselves. Maki sits at the end of one side, with Alice beside her as per usual. Blaze takes up the seat right in front of Maki, leisurely looking out of the window as Arian quietly leans his back from beside his only brother.

"I wonder if there are any new members?" Maki then questions out loud to herself, but also trying to start a conversation with her siblings. She lightly kicks her feet up and down, looking so innocent with her hair in pigtails and all.

Blaze shrugs his shoulders lazily, leaning his head on the window. "I doubt it, Maki," he voices out his own opinion. "Fairy Tail is the best guild in all of Magnolia, and maybe Fiore as well, but we don't exactly have the best of the best reputation, you know?"

"Speaking like a true Castro, brother," Arian jokes lightly. He holds his hand out like a fist towards his younger brother, expecting him to comply and do a fist bump with him.

Blaze, however, simply glances and just ignores it, shutting his eyes closed. Arian puts his hand down, rolling his eyes at the stubborness of his only brother. 

Meanwhile, as the three continue to talk and make light jokes about things, Alice is busying herself with a magazine. She's holding a Sorcerer Weekly magazine, seeming to enjoy herself because she hasn't placed it down the moment they entered the train and sat down.

And as Alice reads, she comes across a article about her very own guild. It actually isn't much of an article, more like her guild mate's modelling pictures. Alice sweat drops because maybe Mirajane may have overdone it, but it is what the take over mage is good at. She then resumes to read, and this time, she sees a list of new but slowly rising to the top guilds.

One name had caught her attention as well. "Sabertooth..." Alice murmurs the name, and then reads the short description about it. "... It may be the strongest guild one day, eh?" She shakes her head at the last bit of the article, smirking to herself because no way would she let Fairy Tail lose.

Maki peeks at the magazine curiously, but she doesn't get to see what Alice was fussing about because the said female turns to the next page quickly. "What're you reading about, Alice?" Maki then questions, tilting her head in question.

"Stop acting like you're innocent," commented Blaze while opening one eye, staring straight into Maki's eyes. "You aren't fooling anyone here."

"You're so annoying, Blaze," Maki complains while puffing her cheeks out, pouting her lips and crossing her arms like a child would do. "What did I ever do to you, anyway?" She questions while raising a brow, matching her brother's stare.

Arian then intervenes, having enough of their banter. "Stop it, the both of you." He knew that if he didn't stop them, then it would escalate and become even more worse than before.

Alice finally closes her magazine, laying it on her lap with a heavy sigh. She turns to her younger siblings, a bored expression on her face. "The two of you better stop right now, I'm going to take a nap," she tells them off, a warning tone in her voice as she says so. Then, she leans deeper into her seat and closes her eyes, trying to get some rest.

Their older sister's warning made Maki and Blaze shut up. They knew how Alice loves her naps, and disturbing them would be a really bad idea. Arian smiles to himself at this, knowing that only Alice would be the one who would stop them without having to say too much. He then keeps quiet as he stares out of the window and into the quickly changing scenery outside.

It took them almost two whole days to arrive at Magnolia. Yet despite the long journey going back, they didn't complain because they were already used to it and nothing really beats going back to their home.

Stepping out of the train station, they were alarmed when they heard two young mothers talking to each other about gossips and or rumors.

"Have you heard about that Phantom guild?" Alice perks up at that, and she halts her steps to listen to the conversation.

"Yes, I have. Poor Fairy Tail, huh?"

"They said that they may be fighting against each other right now."

"Then it's good that my house isn't anywhere near them."

"They shouldn't involve us townspeople. They could kill each other for all I care."

The last comment had angered the four siblings, but Alice had held them all back. She takes a deep breath, and then resumes to walk forward as if she didn't hear anything.

"Phantom lord, huh?" Blaze began, tailing behind his older sister. He looks at her face, and knew that she was serious just by seeing the slight frown. 

"Aren't they on par, or even stronger, than us?!" Maki asks, clearly panicking because she doesn't really know much about the Phantom guild.

"On par, maybe," Arian says with a sigh. "They have their advantages, and we have ours as well. I'm not sure how a battle between us will end."

Blaze glances at his siblings behind him, making sure they were all still together despite the fact that they were slowly but surely increasing in speed to reach Fairy Tail.

Only in a matter of minutes, they were near. They could see the Fairy Tail building is a mess, and all members seems to be fighting against a giant machine not too far away and is aiming them with a large magic gun or machine of a sort, Jupiter.

And just as Erza Scarlet, one of Fairy Tail's strongest mages, exquips into one of her armors and charges head on against the blast from the machine, the Castro siblings arrive at the scene.

And Alice is a few seconds late from forming a large magic barrier between her guild and the machine, her arms stretched out as she holds the barrier in place to protect her guild and guild mates altogether.

Erza, bruised from the short while she took the attack head on, is sent flying. But before she hits the ground, Arian catches her just in time as well.

"Arian!" Cana Alberona and some of the members exclaimed when seeing the mage arriving in the scene just in the nick of time.

Maki displays a grin on her face, waving her hand towards her fellow guild mates. "Sorry for being late, everyone," she apologizes from the bottom of her heart, giving them a deep bow.

Looking at Alice, Blaze couldn't help but smirk. The magic barrier disappears once Jupiter stops firing, while Alice faces the tall machine head on without much fear, and Blaze chuckles to himself. "Phantom is in for a surprise..." He says to no one in particular.

Arian stands up from his spot, carrying the female knight mage in his arms carefully. "They've just given Alice a reason to be real pissed," he continues for his brother, and then he turns around to bring Erza back for her wounds to be attended to.

"Let's show them that Fairy Tail isn't giving up just yet!" Maki exclaims to encourage her teammates, proudly taking a stance.


	3. Jupiter

But this is Phantom lord we're talking about, Maki!" Macao, one of Fairy Tail's oldest member, intervenes Maki's encouragement worriedly. He attempts to not show the dejected look on him, but his voice gave him away as well as the way he casts his gaze downwards. "They've got Master not too long ago, and Erza just now."

"And that's why we can't let them overpower us any longer!" Maki counters back fiercely, making a few other guild members flinch at the way her voice roars and resounds around the area. "We can't let a guild as bad as them defeat us!" The young mage hopes that this could encourage them, because she knows that she isn't going down so easily.

The tips of Cana's lips tug upwards at that, feeling motivated because of Maki's words. The people in her guild never really cease to amaze her. "For once, the kid is right," she tells Macao and those who could hear her.

And suddenly, they hear a voice from someone they can't physically see. It's Phantom lord's guild master, Jose. "Makarov, and now Erza, has been incapacitated. You have no chance in victory, so hand over Lucy Heartfilia right now." The harsh but seemingly true words he says angers the members of Fairy Tail greatly.

"You've got to be kidding!" Not too far away from Maki, Al, a mage who specializes in gun magic, protests with a loud voice.

"There's no guild that would hand over their guild member to an enemy!" Bisca, a female mage who also specializes in gun magic, agrees with what Al said just now and backs him up.

"Lucy is our comrade!" Angrily, Macao yells as loud as he possibly can. He stands his ground, beginning to pick himself up from his dejected mood moments ago. And other members yell their agreements and protests as well, causing an uproar.

"We would rather die than sell out our comrade!!!" Those words made the guild members yell even louder, and that caught the attention of the Castro siblings, making them turn their head to see Erza struggling to stand even though she has Arian's support just beside her.

"Our answer will not change, no matter what happens!!" Natsu Dragneel, Fairy Tail's very own fire dragon slayer, shouts with such aggressiveness. He pounds his fist on the ground in rage. "We'll beat you to a pulp!"

And having enough of their optimistic words, Jose stands up from where he sat inside his guild, "If that's the case, I'll give you another blast from Jupiter!" He cries out, not wanting to hear any more. "Wallow in fear for the next fifteen minutes it needs to recharge!"

"Fifteen minutes...?" 

"Jupiter?!"

"Again?!"

The guild members panic. And even Alice starts to doubt if they'll be able to make it out alive; she's tired, although not as much as Erza, since her body takes as much damage just the same as her magic barriers. She feels her legs give out for a second, but she tries to not fall and staggers instead while she tries to walk away from the front lines.

"Alice!!" Blaze and Maki rush to their sister at the same time, immediately coming to her as support. Both siblings place an arm around her shoulder, walking her to the back as fast as they can.

Mirajane Strauss approaches Arian and Erza worriedly. "Let's take her back to the guild, Arian," the female says, which Arian obediently follows.

Gray Fullbuster looks at both Erza and Alice worriedly, but he knows they are in good hands. "Thanks to Erza and Alice, we were protected from that last shot..." He mutters to himself.

Then, dark cloaked figures fly out of Phantom lord's guild. Gray and the rest are shocked to see about maybe a hundred of the figures above them.

"What's that?!"

"They're sending out troops!"

"Weren't they going to fire Jupiter again?!"

Jose smirks when he sees the scared expressions on their faces. "Take a glimpse of hell, Fairy Tail!" He declares out with a malicious laugh.

While that's going on outside, the Castro siblings, Mirajane and Erza are inside the guild. Erza is laid on the table to rest and recover as best as she can, while Alice is sitting on a chair and talking to Mira.

"How did this happen, Mira?" Alice questions, leaning on her seat and closing her eyes while ignoring the pain in her legs. It all had been a shock to her, really, seeing her home and family in such a state.

Mirajane then tells them about their newest member, Lucy Heartfilia, who is actually from a rich family. She ran away from home, and her father hired Phantom lord to capture Lucy, and they decided to attack Fairy Tail just because they wanted to. And Mira mentions other side stories; like how the guild was attacked, Makarov's magic was drained and he's taken to the forest to be treated by an old friend, and team Shadow Gear was victimized by the same mage who attacked their guild. The siblings listened intently, taking this new information in.

"That's awful," Maki sadly comments after hearing the story about Lucy from Mirajane. Her eyes look down, empathizing with a person she doesn't even know yet.

Mirajane pats Maki's head slowly, smiling at the younger female when they both make eye contact. "Once this is all over, you can talk to Lucy herself about it," the take over mage suggests to the younger.

Maki nods her head, getting herself out of her sad moment. "Yeah, I will. But for now, we must defeat Phantom lord," she says with new found determination.

"That's right," Arian says afterwards, nodding his head in agreement, "Defeating Phantom lord is our objective right now."

"We can't let them get away from hurting our guild mates," Blaze states, cracking his knuckles and rolling his neck.

Alice, seemingly in good shape in just a matter of minutes, stands up and agrees with her siblings. "And we definitely can't let them get away from harming Master," she says with a low voice, her face stoic.

"I'll leave that to you all," Mirajane then says, "I need to take Lucy to our safe house."

"Be careful, Mira," Alice cautiously warns the mage, giving her a knowing look.

"I will." Mira then goes back outside, doing what she's suppose to do to keep Lucy safe from being captured.

The Castro siblings followed suit as well, and they are met with their guild mates defending themselves from dark cloaked figures who keeps on reappearing despite the fact of being attacked by magic. The four joins in, getting separated along the way.

"What's the status now, Cana?!" Arian asks loudly in the midst of fighting. 

"Natsu, Gray and Elfman are going ahead to do something about Jupiter!" Cana replies just as loud, throwing her cards at the enemies.

Alice, not too far away from the other two, joins in on the conversation. "But why Elfman? He can't go all out using his magic!" She protests in the end, worried because he knows the past of the Strauss family.

"There's no other way, Alice!" Cana replies back, "We only have ten minutes left before Jupiter fires again and we can't let that happen!"

"If that's the case, then I'm going in as well!" Arian says, about to run towards the guild. But just as he takes one step, a Shade, or one of the dark cloaked figures, goes through him and he kneels on the ground while breathing heavily.

"Arian!" Alice exclaims in horror, her eyes wide at seeing her brother in this kind of rare state.

Cana blocks Alice from running towards the guild of the enemy, struggling because she's been fighting all this time. "You can't go, Alice! We need you here!" The brunette holds Alice and plants her feet firmly on the ground, doing her best to not let the other escape in a fit of rage.

"I'll avenge Arian!" Alice stubbornly says, refusing to back down. She attempts to break free from Cana's hold, but she couldn't get out of her iron grip. 

"He's not dead, but his magic is slowly decreasing," Cana calms herself down to calm Alice down as well, lowering her voice. "You need to be here with him right now, let Natsu and the others avenge him."

"Like hell I would let that happen!" All of a sudden, Maki, who is nearing towards them, exclaims loudly. "Let me go, please!" She pleads almost too desperately, looking at her sister for permission.

Cana looks at Alice, awaiting for her answer. "It's your call, Alice, since she is your sister." She loosens her grip on Alice upon noticing how she eventually gave up on running away.

"She wouldn't listen to me even if I tell her not to go," Alice sighs, removing herself from Cana's grip for real.

Maki is delighted to hear those words, taking it as some sort of agreement. "I'll try to not get into too much trouble!" Maki waves goodbye as she runs toward the enemy's guild, dodging or attacking any Shades that are blocking her way.

"Why did you actually let her go, Alice?" Cana then asks seriously, holding several cards in her hand already.

The black haired mage sighs once again, watching her sister's figure grow smaller and smaller until it was out of sight. "The Element Four has a earth user, right?" She asks back a question.

"You don't mean...?!" Cana stops herself from continuing her sentence any further, too shocked to actually confirm the answer to herself.

"It's all part of a test, Cana," Alice says, much more calm than Cana. "And we'll see soon enough if my dear sister would pass."

A Shade floats behind Alice and Cana, ready to go through one of them. But the Shade doesn't get to move any further when a sword slices half of it's body and it disappears into thin air. 

"Damn it, you two!" It was Blaze who had saved them from the attack of the Shade. "If you don't plan on helping us, why not step aside?" He angrily tells the two females off.

The brunnete gives Blaze a smile as an apology. "We won't slack off no more, kiddo," she says while throwing three cards to a Shade not too far away.

"Where's Arian?" Alice then asks, seeing that her brother isn't in the battle field anymore.

"I took him inside the guild to rest while you were talking to Cana," Blaze simply answers, then runs off to another area with much more Shades floating around.

They then all continued to fight and defend themselves from the Shades. Later on, their attention was diverted to Jupiter's cannon beginning to aim and fire towards them yet again. 

"Only three minutes left!" Macao and Wakaba alerts the others in panic.

"I'm afraid we have to ask you to cover for us again, Alice," Cana then says, looking at Jupiter's cannon gathering magic around it. 

Alice doesn't need to be told twice about it. She goes to the front lines once again, staring at the cannon before lifting her arms up front. She casts a light blue colored glass like looking barrier large enough to cover her and her guild mates, feeling her legs shake slightly in anticipation of the fire.

Everyone, including the Shades, stop their movement in anticipation of Jupiter's fire but only for a moment. They believed that Alice could hold the fire, but they hoped that Natsu could destroy the cannon in some way so that it would do them all no harm at all.

"Two minutes remaining..." Blaze mutters to himself, still continuing to take out the Shades. He himself is nervous as well. It's not like he doesn't trust Alice, he's more nervous as to what would happen to Alice after taking such a strong blow from Jupiter.

"... She's shaking," Cana eventually points out, worry evident in her eyes and tone of voice. She glances at Blaze attacking the Shades, and then goes back to taking out her own share as well.

"This is bad..."

"Natsu isn't done yet?!"

"One minute left," Blaze comments, glancing at Alice's slightly shaking form.

They waited, anticipating for Jupiter's fire. Fortunately, it never did fire. Just as they were ready for it, the cannon's magic disappears and it explodes just like that.

All celebrated for a short while because of Natsu's success in destroying Jupiter. Then, they went back to attacking the never disappearing Shades.

In shock, Alice goes down on one knee. She closes her eyes shut, feeling the nervous beating of her heart slow down. Silently praying, Alice then quickly makes her way back to the guild to check up on her brother.


	4. Abyss Break

Even though Jupiter is destroyed, Phantom still has another ace up their sleeves. Their guild slowly moves, changing into the form of a giant.

"You've got to be kidding me, it transformed into a giant!?" Maki talks to herself while watching everything unfold right in front of her eyes.

The giant transformed guild then begins to write into thin air, leaving marks or writings. Maki stares at it quizzically, but then she realizes what it is and takes a step back in shock.

"... This can't be," Maki whispers to herself, looking at the writings. She then turns around, and weaves through the mages and Shades fighting against each other to reach the guild as fast as possible.

Blaze, on the other hand, took one look at the giant's writing and heaves a sigh to himself. "Not this again..." He whispers to himself while dodging a Shade about to go through him.

And as for Alice, she's busy inside the guild tending to her older brother. She has her hands over his torso, a bright white or blue color glowing from her hands. Mirajane is not too far from them, watching Alice's always calm looking face morph into one of worry and sadness clouds her eyes.

"Alice!!" Maki bursts through the guild loudly, breathing heavily from the running that she did. The pink haired female rushes to her sister's side, panic and fear evident on her features.

"What is it, Maki?" Alice asks in a hushed tone, not sparing her younger sister even a single glance.

"Outside, Phantom's guild is now a giant!" Maki exclaims in fear, though Alice doesn't seem to be the fazed much. Maki grits her teeth, and then grabs Alice's shoulder to make them face each other. "The guild is in even more danger!"

Alarmed, Mirajane decides to let the siblings solve this matter among themselves. Then she walks back upstairs to see what did Maki actually mean by the guild being in even more danger now.

"Listen, they're about to activate Abyss Break on us, Alice!" Maki then yells in anger, the grip on Alice's shoulder getting stronger, "We have to do something to save the guild!"

Dropping her arms slowly, Alice looks at Maki straight in the eyes in a serious matter; so serious that Maki felt a chill run down her spine. "You do know that the last time we've ever encountered Abyss Break, I almost died..." Alice says with her voice almost a whisper.

"Blaze saved you before! I'm sure he can save you again if things get worse!" Maki says with much determination, her eyes seemingly burning and glowing bright.

Alice frowns, a almost rare occurrence for her. She looks down, and heaves a heavy sigh to herself. "You don't understand, do you, Maki? I can't do _that_ spell anymore, it'll only kill me and Blaze along the way," Alice explains sorrowfully.

Maki takes a step back, shaking her head towards her sister in disappointment. "I thought you would do it, for the guild," the earth mage quietly says, "But I guess we can only trust Natsu-san and the others to somehow put a stop to it."

Without another word, Alice watches her sister run out. She stares at the direction she disappeared to, her gaze lingering more than it should, then she goes back to healing Arian.

And when Alice is done with what she can do to heal her brother, she decides to go outside and check how are things going. And, she's in for a surprise because once she steps foot outside, her gaze immediately lands on a helpless looking Mirajane stuck between the guild's two giant fingers.

"Mira!!" Alice yells, jogging forward with wide eyes. Looking up at her comrade made her heart ache, but seeing Mira's expression felt like her heart could shatter. Mirajane rarely cried, and so seeing her eyes so close to spilling tears is really a shock to her.

Cana approaches the black haired mage, and explains to her what happened minutes before Alice came in. Hearing the story, Alice clenches her fist and closes her eyes shut.

"If only I had acted on time..." Alice whispers to herself, taking a very deep breath and then looking back up to Mirajane.

"We have to trust Natsu and the others," Cana says, patting Alice's shoulder twice as a act of reassurance.

"Where's Maki?" Alice then asks, looking around to look for her pink haired sibling. However, she didnt find anyone with pink hair on the battlefield.

Cana doesn't get to answer, because they hear something breaking. They both look up, and see a part of Phantom's guild destroyed, and half of Elfman's body showing.

"This can't be good..." Alice says, squinting her eyes to take a better look at what's happening from up there.

"Focus right in front of you, Alice!" Cana then warns while pointing at the direction of the Shades not too far away from them.

Without having any other choice, Alice takes part in attacking the Shades once again.

Meanwhile, as the fight on land is happening, Elfman is being pushed to his limit by one of the Element Four. He's stuck in the last few memories he has of his little sister, Lisanna, because his opponent had cast a spell on him to be stuck there forever.

As Elfman is slowly being consumed by the ground, Sol watches in satisfaction of his work. However, the green haired male loses his smile when he feels a dark aura and magic power somehow similar to himself. He turns his head, and is immediately greeted with rocks thrown his way which he avoids on the last second.

"Oh??" Sol says in interest, tilting his body to the side while he looks at the female in front of him.

"Let Elfman go," Maki says calmly with clenched fists on her side.

"I have no intentions on letting such a little girl like yourself boss me around," Sol says, now tilting his body from left to right as if to mock Maki.

Maki is angered by his words and takes a stance. "Don't underestimate me, bastard!!" She yells loudly as rocks from the ground start to rise at the same time. "For I control this space!" She makes the rocks fly forward towards Sol, making them surround him.

Swiftly, Sol jumps upwards and avoids the attack. He lands back on the ground, smirking confidenly. "You are mistaken, little girl," he says, "It seems that you have overestimated yourself. _**Roche Concerto**_!"

The rocks from the ground fly upward, and so does Maki. Too shocked, the female doesn't get to counter attack and falls on her back harshly, and she groans and winces at the pain.

"Perhaps you have a sorrowful past as well, little girl?" Sol questions, tilting his body to the right, his eyebrows furrowed. Maki doesn't respond, so Sol continues to talk, "Lost a sibling before, felt insecurity, wasn't good enough?"

With gritted teeth, Maki forces herself to stand up. She stretches her arms, and was about to do a spell but her legs gave up and she lands back on the ground again in pain.

Sol mockingly hums, his body still tilted. "Perhaps, failing to overcome your weaknesses?" He questions, then shrugs his shoulders, "I do pity you, truly, little girl. You have such potential in you, but only to be wasted in such a guild as Fairy Tail."

Maki could only take deep breaths while she laid useless on the ground. Her eyes were about to form tears, but she forced her eyes shut to not allow any tears to escape her.

"Well, it's finally time for the finale..." As Sol says that, Elfman somehow gets out of Sol's sealing magic.

The bigger male successfully did a full body take over of the Beast that hunts him, and he beats Sol up without much delay. Maki watches all this with fright, still unable to move because of the attack she took from Sol himself.

When Elfman is done with Sol, he saves Mirajane from the giant's clutches. They enter the giant, and soon find Maki on the ground.

"Maki!" Mirajane holds the younger female close to herself, cradling half of Maki's body on her lap.

The earth user forces a smile, but only for a split second. Her smile then turns into a frown, and she grabs Mira's hand with her own. "I... I failed, Mira-san," her voice shakes as she says so, and the grip on the older ones hand tightens.

"You tried to take out that Muncher Sol?!" Elfman asks worriedly, face displaying a expression of surprise.

"I tried, I really did.." Maki utters sadly, "But he was much more better than me."

"Elfman was able to defeat him, Maki," Mirajane cooes, "So it's alright now. We're on our way to find the rest of the Element Four because they control Abyss Break."

The two siblings worked together to have Maki on the male's back carefully. She could walk, but she would only slow them down so the best choice is to just carry and bring her with them.

"Gray-san is here, isn't he?" Maki eventually asks while the other two walked and tried to navigate their way inside the giant.

Elfman hums his answer. "Gray is a man, he can take down one of the Elemental Four."

"Water, and Air," Maki huffs tiredly. "Gray-san can take out the water user," she tells the two others.

"He will," Mirajane says with determination and belief that Gray will really take down whoever the water user is.

Minutes later, they were finally able to find Gray. He's standing by a woman clothed in all blue with a happy expression on her face.

"Gray!" Mirajane and Elfman called for his attention at the same time.

Gray sees the two Strauss siblings, and he's quite surprised. "Elfman! And Mira-chan, too!"

Maki lifts her head a bit and shows Gray a small smile. "Long time no see, Gray-san," she says in a ever so nonchalant manner.

"How'd you get here, Maki?" Gray tilts his head in question. Seeing the younger female covered in bruises and scratches, he knows that she's involved herself in a fight.

"It's a long story," Maki sighs, waving her hand to dismiss any more questions from him.

"But this is the third Element Four?" Elfman then asks, staring at the female laying unconscious on the ground with a happy and lovestruck expression on her face.

"Why does she look so happy, though?" Maki asks then, her eyebrows furrowed.

Gray shrugs his shoulders, "Beats me. She must be having a good dream."

"Then that leaves us one last," Mirajane says, and she starts to explain to Gray how the magic giant works.

"Huh, no kidding," Gray says when he directs his attention to to the giant's finger gradually writing on thin air.

"Fire, Earth, Water, and Air. These four elements control the giant and Abyss Break, and these elements are controlled by the Element Four," Mirajane tells them all, looking very serious.

"So you're saying that we have to defeat them all to stop the giant?" Gray questions.

"It seems so," Maki then says, her eyes following the familiar large looking magic circle in the air.

"Totomaru of the Conflagration who guarded Jupiter, but Natsu defeated. Then, Sol of the Land whom Elfman defeated. Juvia of the Ocean, who Gray has defeated," Mirajane recites all three of the Element Four that they have taken down. Maki tries not to show her guilt when Sol was mentioned, averting her gaze downwards.

"And the last one?" Elfman ushers his sister to continue on.

"Aria of the Heaven," Mirajane answers almost immediately. "The most powerful and fearsome one in the Element Four, and the one who has drained our Master's magical powers."

"Only then can we stop Abyss Break?" Maki asks, but it was directly mostly to herself.

Unfortunately, Mirajane heard it. "Yes, Maki. And we have to defeat Aria as soon as possible, or at least before he reveals his eyes."

"His eyes?" Elfman, Gray and Maki echo all at the same time curiously.

"He covers his eyes to not unleash his full magic power. And so, we have to find and defeat before he unveils his eyes to anyone. Or else, we are done for." As Mirajane says all this, the magic circle done by the giant glows, and the giant seems to be shaking a bit.

"Abyss Break..!" Maki exclaims, clutching unto Elfman's back even more. She feels herself shake as well, and she hides her face almost immediately.

"We have to move!" Gray says, and he ushers for Mirajane to run ahead of them and navigate them through the halls of the giant.

Minutes later, the shaking of the giant stops. Maki peeks through the window beside them and sees that the magic circle is no more and their guild members below are cheering.

"It must be Natsu-san who's with the air user now," Maki then commented casually.

"Natsu is a man!" Elfman exclaims to lift their spirits, which didn't do much at all.

"Abyss Break has been averted!" Mirajane says with relief and pride for her guild mates for going this far.

They then continued on running to find Natsu, hoping that he's alive and well.


	5. Aftermath

"Wait, is that Erza-san?" Maki is the first to comment about the exquip mage from the distance just because of the unmistakable scarlet colored hair.

"Erza!" Mirajane and Gray then calls once they were all close enough.

Erza looks up from where she sat, eyes wide. "You guys..."

Elfman puts Maki down, seeing that the younger female had kept on squirming on his back. Maki walks up to Erza and lightly smiles, but the older female takes one look at her bruises and frowns.

"Why are you here?" Erza asks in a worried tone to the pink haired mage beside her.

Maki's smile falters just a tad bit, but she still forces it to not completely disappear. "I could ask the same thing to you, Erza-san."

"You really shouldn't be moving," Mirajane says, her eyes looking pitifully at Erza.

It really isn't everyday to see the female as she is now, so it really did come a shock to all of them seeing her right now.

Elfman then looks around the room, and he notices a figure that laid unconscious on the ground. It was the last of the Element Four, Aria. "You fought him with injuries like that, Erza?" Elfman asks in shock.

"What were you thinking?" Gray then spoke up, looking just as surpise and worried as Elfman and Mirajane did.

"You defeated Aria?" Mirajane then asks the question straight forwardly. 

"I never wanted any of you to see me in such a pathetic state," Erza says with a sad smile, tilting her head to the side. "I still have a long way to go, it seems."

"We all do, Erza-san," Maki says to comfort the older one into showing her that she isn't alone at all. 

Then, all of a sudden, they feel a dark and evil presence in the room. The presense is so dark that it made them sick to their stomachs, feeling such evil magical power. The room is filled with dark colored smoke, and Maki cowers in fear once sensing the evil and dark presence.

"What?"

"What is this..?!"

"This is..."

"The presence of death!"

They then all turned to the sound of footsteps, seeing someone they didn't expect to face at all. In all his evil and vile presence, there proudly stood Phantom's guild master, Jose.

"Quick, get behind me, Maki," Erza says almost immediately, trying her best to stand up.

Jose says how all this is entertaining to him, since he did not expect this outcome at all. Then, he threatens them, to which Elfman and Gray respond to by attacking. And, of course, Jose takes them down with little to no effort.

Finally, Erza steps up and fights Jose with the amount of strength and magical power she has as of the moment. Mirajane and Maki are thrown to the side, affected by Jose's attack.

It took Erza quite awhile, attacking Jose and dodging the attacks given back to her. She did what she can, but eventually got trapped by one of Jose's spell. Just as Erza is about to lose her life, she's placed down and behind her comes in Makarov with a blinding but warm light. 

Makarov tells his children to leave, to which they didn't want to do.

"Gramps!"

"But Master!"

"We have to do as he says," Erza says, holding Maki up by her arm. "We'll only be a burden to him if we stay."

And with gritted teeth, they submitted and listened to Makarov's words. They left the premises as quick as possible, wanting but not able to be involved with Makarov and Jose's fight. 

"Are your siblings with you, Maki?" Erza asks all of a sudden as they were fast walking out of the guild. Erza looks at the younger female, and then looks back up straight ahead when she feels that Maki isn't bothered by the question at all.

"They're all outside with the others. I'm sure they're safe," Maki says softly. She tries to catch up with Erza, still having a hard time because her body ached so much that she felt like collapsing soon.

"Did you get involve with the fighting?" Erza then asks another question, curious as to how Maki got her injuries.

Maki doesn't answer, and Elfman answers in her stead. "She tried to match with one of the Element Four."

"But I didn't win," Maki protests, stopping herself from crying. Tears were beginning to form, and she just tried to blink them all away to not show any weaknesses.

"You were able to buy some time for Elfman," Mirajane says to comfort the girl, smiling a small smile as reassurance.

Sniveling, Maki shakes her head. "I couldn't do it, not even a single scratch on that stupid Muncher Sol," she whines, but mostly to herself. "Cana-san was worried about me, and Alice simply let me go. I should have just stayed back to avoid this pain and humiliation."

They reached an exit, going down the giant and standing back onto land. Elfman separates from his sister a bit, thinking by himself. And Erza and Maki are still supporting each other to stand, waiting for the results from Makarov and Jose's battle.

Gray stands beside Maki, and he ruffles her hair with a smile on his face. "I'm sure that no one is upset with what you've done, Maki," he says that to cheer her up.

Maki laughs, wiping her eyes and then nose. She smiles a little, and then pushes Gray's hand off of her head as if she didn't like it or found it comforting at all. "I sure hope so."

There's a bright light, and then all the Shades in the sky vanished and never returned. Erza smiles at the warm and happy light shining on them, knowing full well what it is.

"The light is one of the strongest spells ever in history, Fairy Law. It destroys everything and anything dark, and anyone who the caster deems as his or her enemy. This is definitely Master's doing," Erza explains to them with obvious pride in her tone of voice. 

Knowing that they have won over Phantom lord, everyone gathers in front of what is suppose to be Fairy Tail's guild. Lucy then tries to apologizes, and team Shadow Gear and Reedus say what they truly feel about the whole thing. Makarov sort of explains the mages of Fairy Tail and how they are, and because of his touching words Lucy cries.

"This is really something to come back to." Now conscious and together with his other siblings, Arian is back to normal thanks to resting up and Alice's healing abilities.

"We were all shocked, no doubt," Alice says next, a small smile on her face upon seeing her family back together again.

Blaze hums his own agreement, nodding his head. "And it is very tiresome as well, I want to go home," he heaves a very heavy sigh afterwards.

"Not so fast, little brother," Alice says quickly, stopping the younger male from taking any further actions. "After all this, I'm sure that we still need to rebuild the guild, and we need to help out as much as we can."

Arian perks up, "Don't forget about the Council, too."

"How are you even sure they know about this?" Maki finally spoke up, asking her brother with furrowed eyebrows and her hands on her sides.

The brunet shrugs his shoulders, "Maybe because it's the Council? And I see them right over there," he directs them to where he's looking at with his chin, seeing a group of uniformed men approaching them.

The Rune Knights, the Magic Council's Army, had them under their custody for about a week. Everyone involved was questioned, taken in one by one to a tent with several knights.

After a very long week of questioning, the Rune Knights finally left Fairy Tail. All members participated in remaking the guild into a better one, thinking that this is a opportunity for it to be changed.

And after awhile, they could finally take on jobs to help raise funds for the guild. Some members took one immediately, while some stayed in the guild.

The Castro siblings had just arrived, most of them not being a morning person at all. When they had arrived, they immediately heard yelling and they knew it wasn't good.

"Weaklings deserve no place in this guild!" Laxus, Makarov's grandson, had boldly stated for everyone around to hear. He then turns behind him to look at Jet and Droy, the two males victimized by Phantom, "You both are a disgrace for being humiliated by Phantom just like that," then he turns to Lucy who is just by the bar, "And you're the cause of all this, miss Stellar Spirit user. You're--"

"That's enough, Laxus," Mirajane finally steps in, to which makes Laxus stand up in more interest. "The matter is closed and no one is to blame for it."

Then, Arian steps in as well not too far from Erza. He has his eyes furrowed in anger and his lips pressed in a thin line, his eyes looking like it's glowing. "You don't have the right to speak that way, Laxus, because you yourself wasn't here to help any of us," Arian spoke up, directing the attention to him.

"So what?" Laxus smirks, "It doesnt have to do anything with me. You all wouldn't be in a pathetic state if I were here, though," he boasts proudly.

Maki and Blaze grit their teeth at his words, but most especially Maki because of what she's been through that day with Phantom. Just as Maki was about to speak up as well, Alice places a hand on her head to stop her.

On cue, Natsu tries to land an attack on Laxus. The blond simply moves with his lightnight magic to avoid Natsu's punch.

"Laxus! I demand a showdown!" Natsu yells, overwhelmed by his emotions. "You heartless bastard!"

Laxus laughs at this, hands on his sides. "What kind of fight do you want when you can't even touch me?" He mocks the fire dragon slayer. "When I inherit this guild, I will get rid of all weaklings, and all those who dare to rebel against me!" He then goes on with making the strongest guild. "It will be the strongest guild, that no one would dare to look down upon!"

Alice is restraining all her siblings by now, holding Maki and Blaze by their arms and making a barrier around Arian. 

No one spoke after what Laxus says, and the blond disappears with a laugh and a flash of lightning.

The Castro siblings approached Mirajane in their very own bar that she runs, not looking pleased with what just happened with Laxus.

"Good day, Mira," Alice greets with a tired smile, taking the spot next to the blonde that the barmaid had just finished talking to.

"About time the four of you showed up," Mirajane giggles with her usual closed eye smile. "None of you have met Lucy, have you?" She then asks, gesturing towards the blonde who shyly sat and shrunk on her seat.

Enthusiastically, Maki takes the other unoccupied side. She's very eager in meeting the blonde, all of them can tell with just the smile on her face. "We haven't introduced ourselves yet, but we know who you are from Mira-san's stories," she says as friendly as ever.

"Slow down a bit, Maki," Arian warns immediately, his stern expression then dissolving into one of happiness. He turns to Lucy, smiling apologetically, "Please do not mind if she's a bit too straightforward, Lucy."

"Get into introduction already," Blaze sighs, sensing that Lucy is getting quite uncomfortable.

Arian takes out his hand for her to take, a boyish grin on his face. "Nice to meet you, Lucy. I'm Arian Castro, call me whichever makes you comfortable."

And just as Maki was about to introduce herself, Alice interferes and clears her throat. Lucy is shocked by all the attention she's receiving, though she nevertheless listens after shaking Arian's hand. "My name is Alice, this idiot's younger sister," the black haired female introduces herself, bowing slightly.

Blaze immediately blocks Maki from saying anything, his face void from any expression. "And I'm the younger brother of these two idiots, Blaze," he says. He receives a giggle from Mirajane at the side, and Lucy couldn't help but hide her smile at his words as well.

Maki pushes Blaze away, clearing her throat and then extending her hand for Lucy to take. "I'm the youngest out of all these idiots, Maki," she grins, happily shaking Lucy's hand.

Lucy then shyly gulps, and shows them a bright smile. "My name's Lucy Heartfilia, though you all already know that," she laughs a bit in the end, hoping that she isn't too awkward.

Maki nods her head vigorously. "By the way, you're very pretty, Lucy-san!" She compliments the blonde without shame, her eyes sparkling in admiration.

"It seems that you've earned our little sister's respect with little to no effort, Lucy," Arian commented, not looking surprised at all. 

"E-Eh?" Lucy is confused, not sure as to what they all meant.

"She doesn't call everyone -san, you see," Alice began to explain politely. "She only calls them with a -san if she has respect for them."

"Well... I'm honored, Maki," Lucy smiles, though finding them a bit odd.

Before they could continue their conversation any further, Lucy's name is called, along with Gray and Natsu. Erza is saying something about them being a team, to which the team members themselves are quite surprsied.

The other members around them are saying how the strongest team has just been formed, but the Castro siblings can't help but protest.

"Oh? Strongest?" Arian echoes, lifting his eyebrows in interest.

"Why are they the strongest? Unfair!" Maki whines like a kid.

"You can call them the strongest, sure. Erza is there," Blaze says with a shrug of his shoulders.

"The competition has just become better," Alice says, being carried awhile as well just like her siblings.

The newly formed team leaves to take action of their job request, and the Castro siblings are not going to let themselves lose against them.

"Let's go. We can't lose to Erza and the others," Alice says with a smirk, already having a request form stamped by Mirajane.

Mirajane sees them off with the usual smile on her face. And she concludes, that Fairy Tail finally has their two strongest teams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts?


	6. Floro Town

The arrival of a train sounded throughout the whole station, and Blaze couldn't be any happier after waiting for two hours in the station.

"Wake up, Arian," Blaze calls to his brother blankly, shaking him awake by the arm. "The train is here already, wake up or else we'll miss it," he threatens a bit, knowing how it would always work on his brother.

And immediately, Arian jolts awake. He stands up and grabs his luggage, waking up Alice and Maki while he was at it. "... My bad," realizing his mistake of abruptly waking up his first sister, he apologizes as soon as he can register what he has done.

Alice shoots a glare at her older brother's way, not liking that her nap was interrupted. Sighing, she wore her bag and stood up, gazing at her sister who sluggishly got on her two feet.

"Where're my stuff?" Maki asks while yawning, rubbing her left eye while lookong around the bench they just got up from. 

Blaze held out his hand, giving out his sister's suitcase. "Hurry up, you slowpoke. We'll miss the train," he warns, facing his back to her once the suitcase was out of his grasp.

The four of them then walked up to the train's entrance, with Arian leading the way and Alice holding up the rear just like always. They sat on their designated booth, and then quietly sat on their places.

It was only fifteen minutes later when the train was full, and it began to move to it's destination. Maki has her head on the window, her eyes shut but not asleep. Blaze is calmly sitting while holding a dagger in his hands, twirling it between his fingers. Alice is staring out of the window, her arms crossed while she thinks to herself. And Arian is taking out snacks from his bag, ready to devor them any moment now.

Alice then pulled out the request form from her bag, and cleared her throat to call the attention of her siblings. "Alright, let's begin to plan how we'll tackle this request," she says seriously, scanning the form.

Arian opens a bag of crackers, taking one out and placing it in his mouth. He looks up, and sees that Alice is blankly staring at him and his food. "What?" He questions, "You want some?" He offers his food kindly.

Maki takes almost half of the crackers out of the bag, slowly eating the crackers piece by piece. "Don't mind if I do," she nonchalantly states with her mouth half full.

"You two are annoying," Blaze then tells them off, rolling his eyes as if he could see his brain inside. 

"Put that dagger away, Blaze," Arian now tells him, giving him a knowing look.

Blaze doesn't listen, though. He keeps on twirling the dagger around, until he senses a dark aura and he looks up to see Alice with her eyes squinted at him. "... Fine," Blaze gives in, and he placing his dagger inside his jacket pocket.

"Anyways," Alice began quickly, "Let's see how will we manage to finish this request quickly."

"What's it about again?" Maki asks once she had swallowed a mouthful of crackers. Her drowsiness isn't evident anymore because of the food, and she now becomes much more alive and energetic than a few minutes ago.

"A group or gang named Wolf Brotherhood is attacking Floro Town, stealing old and ancient books from the town's mayor," Alice explains the gist of the request plainly, "All we have to do is find the group and get the books back from them."

"So that means beating them up along the way," Blaze says with a bit of interest. 

"This should be easy," Maki boasts proudly, a wide smile on her face filled with confidence.

"You shouldn't strain yourself too much," Arian is quick to protest. "You haven't fully recovered from the Phantom attack." His words made Maki frown and then pout in disappointment.

"She should be fine by now," Alice states honestly, "I've already healed her wounds last time, and her legs are fine as well."

"If anything, it should be you who should take it easy." Blaze looks out of the window, watching their scenery change. His gaze averts to his only brother, who has his eyebrows raised at him. "I'm saying to be careful because that Phantom really took a toll on you last week."

"I'm good," Arian dismisses Blaze's worried thoughts with a wave of his hand. "I've rested long enough already."

"Then let's all get some sleep," Alice finalized a decision for them with a sigh, placing the request form back in her bag. "Floro Town is still hours away, and we'll be there before the end of the day."

The other three siblings said their agreements, and made themselves comfy enough to rest.

Once they have arrived at their destination, hours later, the sun had just set and the Castro siblings were quick on their feet to meet with the mayor of the town.

The mages were escorted kindly to a mansion wherein they were to meet the mayor, or so the guards had said before they left. It seemed a bit too easy, or maybe they were just paranoid because of the eerie feeling the town is giving them during this time in the evening.

"You all know to act in your best behavior," seeing a man wearing a robe in the distance, Alice is quick to tell her siblings off. Knowing her siblings, they would obviously obey because they should already know by now that acting their best is part of the job request as well.

The mayor approaches them all with a small smile on his face, arms crossed over his clothed torso. He has two guards, one by his left and right, who stood stoicly by the mayor. The man gives off a weird vibe that none of the siblings can pinpoint yet, but they simply have to roll with it for now.

"Good evening, mages," the mayor greets them rather calmly, his smile faltering. "I suppose that the train ride was longer than expected?" He had asked, probably to know the reason as to why are they here at this time.

Arian offers a kind and polite smile, taking a step forward to have the attention to himself. "Magnolia is about six hours away by train, sir, therefore I apologize for our sudden appearance at this time."

The mayor's face shows an obvious expression of being impressed by Arian's chosen words. He fixes his composure even more, straightening his back and clearing his throat. "And what guild are you from?" His eyes searches for their guild marks, as if demanding them to show to him.

"The only guild in Magnolia, sir," Arian answers with pride in his voice. The brunet lifts the right side sleeve of his shirt, displaying the golden colored mark on his upper arm, "Fairy Tail."

"I... See," slowly, the mayor says his words. He seems to be thinking, staring deeply at the mark on Arian's arm. He blinks twice, and then nods his head to signal the younger male that he believes him. "As guests of mine, I implore you all to stay in my humble abode during your stay here," the mayor then tells them next.

Restraining herself to roll her eyes, Alice is the one who answers this time, "That is very much appreciated, sir mayor."

The mayor, now fixating his eyes on Alice, smiles almost automatically. "Of course, my dear, of course." He chuckles, and then signals his guards with a wave of his hand. "Please address me as Yama, with no formalities," he then added, "It makes me feel much more older."

"That would be rude of me, Yama-san," Alice says with a very fake smile that her siblings didnt fail to notice.

Maki steps in, rescuing her sister from the rather awkward atmosphere between them. "May my sister and I share a room, Yama?" She asks innocently, tilting her head with a large smile on her face.

Noticing the killing intent in her smile, Blaze bites back a smile and chuckle. He coughs, and nodded his head, "May I share a room with my brother as well, Yama?" He requests, without the smile that is plastered on Maki's face.

Taken aback, Yama's eyes go wide. He tries to mask his shock at their sudden boldness, nodding his head. "... Why, of course."

"We will discuss the request with you tomorrow morning, sir," Arian, the only one who will not call Yama by his name, says with finality in his voice.

Wordlessly, Yama then turns around and walks back to where he came from. The guards with him, stayed behind and escorted the siblings to their rooms silently.

"That Yama man is weird." The first thing that Maki does once she and her sister is alone in the room, is to lay on her side of the bed.

There was only one bed, but the sisters are more than fine with sharing it. It is a queen sized bed, anyway, so there should be no problem regarding to having their own personal space and all that. There was a medium sized desk, a drawer, a lamp, a closet and a door to the bathroom. It was just like any other bedroom, but much more fancier with all the difference it had from most rooms they've been to.

"We have to be careful around that man," sighed Alice, already changed into her sleepwear. "I just hope that it's his interest in girls that make him weird, and not anything else." The older female slips into the covers as well, happily sighing at the blissful feeling of the soft mattress beneath her.

"Either way, I don't like him," Maki then decided, nodding her head to herself. She makes herself comfortable on the bed, and soon is fast asleep just like her sister.

The next morning, the Castro siblings met up with the mayor as soon as they can. Alice has always been quite strict in being punctual, and so her other siblings had gotten used to it over the years. When they met with the mayor, saying that he was surprised would be an understatement.

"Good morning," all siblings greeted with a very professional courtesy, standing in front of Yama and his family while they ate their breakfast.

Hastily standing up, Yama wipes the crumbs off of himself. "... Good morning, mages of Fairy Tail. I believe that you all want to know more about the job that you are here for?" He questions them.

"If there is anything else we need to know about, sir," Arian answers, being the face of their group for now. 

"Well, as you may have read in the request form, Wolf Brotherhood has been stealing from my family and I. They began three months ago, and no mages so far have been successful in capturing them." As he begins to explain, he walks a bit with a slight frown on his face. "The books that they are stealing are rather ancient, you see, more than a hundred years old at least. The books are of no use to me, yet it doesn't sit well with me to know that I've given up such ancient books."

The siblings took the information in rather calmly and quickly. It seems that all they have to do is defeat Wolf Brotherhood and get the books back from them; however, jobs aren't as easy as they seem to be, the siblings should know that by now.

"And what about Wolf Brotherhood?" Alice then began to ask. "Is there anything you've noticed about them for the previous months they've been stealing from you?" 

"They aren't that big of a group," answered Yama plainly, "A simple group of men around ten or so members, I suppose. That is all I know."

"We will begin our search, then," Alice had opted for all of them, nodding her head curtly at Yama. 

"Yes, of course," Yama then smiles, "Thank you very much and I wish you all good luck."

Turning their backs on Yama and his family, the siblings walked out of the mansion.


	7. Wolf Brotherhood

The four mages of Fairy Tail had opted to ask around any more details of the Wolf Brotherhood. They didn't get much information, but they were told that Wolf Brotherhood never leave any traces of themselves once they've striked; only going in, stealing the books and then going back to the South parts of the woods without a trace.

"Must be like the guild Dark Horn, ," Alice mentions to her siblings. "They must have a barrier around to not be detected."

Tilting her head sidewards, Maki's eyebrows furrow in confusion. "Then that means their barrier is so strong that no one else was able to find their hideout?"

"Good point, Maki," Arian says in realization. Maki smiles proudly at her achievement, to which Blaze rolls his eyes at. "It must be why anyone who took this request gave up, because they couldn't pinpoint where exactly the enemy is hiding."

The three, mostly Arian and Alice, talked about any possibilities on how they could find Wolf Brotherhood's hideout. Meanwhile, Blaze surveyed around their area, feeling someone's stare burning a hole at the back of his head.

Awhile later, Blaze locks eyes with a suspicious looking man near an alley. The man seems to smirk at the young male, and then enters the alley. Blaze's face scrunches up in a quizzical manner, and he mutters an excuse to leave his siblings discuss about the matter while he investigates on the man he just saw.

And inside the alley, Blaze calmly walks straight ahead while looking around. Hands in his pockets, the male was about to turn around but an arm snakes around his neck and the next thing he knows is that a blade is gently pressed unto his neck in a threatening manner.

"What do you want with Wolf Brotherhood?" A man's smooth voice reached Blaze's ear, and the blade against his neck presses in a tad bit further. 

"Nothing more than the books that they've stolen from the mayor," Blaze answers, slowly raising his hands to grip unto the arm around his neck. 

Slowly, the arm lowers down and the owner releases a breath of relief. Blaze turns around, faced to faced with a man taller than him. His outfit is what makes him suspicious, and also the way his lips move to smirk at the young boy before him.

"What's a kid like you wanting to do that with his little friends?" Again, the man asks. The smirk on his face does not falter, and he raises an eyebrow, his eyes almost glowing because of the slight dimness of the alley.

"We're from Fairy Tail, and we got this request from the town's mayor." At Blaze's explanation, the unknown man up front makes a thinking face, humming at the information he had just received.

He scratches the back of his head, looking much more casual and laid back now. "I wouldnt mind lending some assistance, kiddo," he then offers to Blaze.

"Why would you, a stranger, help us?" With one eyebrow upwards, the blond then inquires with pure interest. He leans heavily on one leg, crossing his arms over his torso almost in a superior manner.

"Would it be much more reassuring if we know each other?" The man then counters back with a question. "My name's Gavin, and I've been following Wolf Brotherhood ever since they attacked this town. I can't really attack a powerful group head on, especially with what little abilities I have, now can I? So instead, I gather as much information as I can about them, waiting for the day to use them. And, it seems that time has come." The man now known as Gavin has quite the long explanation, and it has Blaze taken aback, but he's professional enough to not show it on his face.

"... I'm Blaze, but please don't call me with any formalities because I'm very sure that you're older than me." Blaze then pulls his hand out, and Gavin hesitantly brought his own as well to shake the hand of the younger male.

"Blaze?" Echoed Gavin, "As in Blaze Castro?" He questions, almost gasping in surprise.

Hearing this, Blaze couldn't help but smirk. "There's only one Blaze Castro, Gavin," he says proudly.

"What a lucky man I am, to meet the accursed Blaze Castro of Fairy Tail." His words makes Blaze pause, because of the odd and eerie way Gavin had said it.

"... That's me." Blaze loses his smirk, going back to his face void of emotion. "Anyways, I'll introduce you to my siblings, Gavin," he says, beginning to walk out of the alley.

Gavin follows, obviously. "Siblings? Now I've got to be the luckiest man right now, to be able to meet all the Castro siblings at once!" He cheers to himself, to which Blaze rolls his eyes at.

Once Blaze is seen by his siblings, they all gush about him running off without telling them. He's about to get an earful from Alice, but he stops her with his hand.

"I've just scouted someone who could help us, Alice," Blaze tells them, but mainly to his older sister to make her stop her scolding. "Beware, he's quite a fan of us, though..." He whispers quickly, turning around to motion for his new found acquaintance to approach them.

Gavin seems to be shy at first, awkwardly scratching the back of his head as he comes forward and face to face with the Castro siblings. "Uh, hello.."

Being the oldest, Arian steps closer to Gavin, with his usual friendly face on. "Hello there, my name is Arian." Even though his lips are tugged upward in a smile, his eyes are scrutinizing every move that Gavin makes in front of them. "And my sisters, Alice and Maki," he gestures to them as he says their names respectively.

"I'm Gavin, and it's really an honor to meet you all," he responds back, slowly becoming calm. "I've read some articles, you see, about the things you've achieved in life."

Maki laughs, her eyes sparkling. "Well, I'm happy that you read and know about us, Gavin!" She exclaims giddily. 

Alice pushes Maki's face away from Gavin, a serious expression on her face. "Yes, we're glad to know that," she says monotonously. "Anyways, how can you help us regarding Wolf Brotherhood?" She's straight to the point, not letting Gavin affect her at all.

"As you all may know, they exit towards the South woods," Gavin began, his happy and cheerful aura gradually becoming serious just like Alice. "I've tracked them a few times, and it seems that they disappear underground."

"Do they have magic barriers?" Arian questions Gavin, not exactly believing his words.

"Yes, and that's why they aren't easily detected," answered Gavin without breaking a sweat.

Maki grins at that, "I knew it!"

"Shut up, Maki," Blaze tells her off immediately.

"But, I've researched about their barriers, and I think I understand how to break them," Gavin adds, "I think it isn't any ordinary barrier that just about anyone can break."

Alice, for the first time that Gavin has appeared, let's herself smile a bit. "It's a good thing that we aren't just anyone, then."

"The magic barrier seems to be unbreakable, unless the caster themselves is defeated. However, I do think that there is another way to break it." As Gavin says this, Alice finds herself becoming a bit interested in the topic.

"Are there any nice restaurants here? We could find ourselves a place to eat and talk more about the barrier," Arian then suggests, since they haven't had breakfast and all.

"Good idea, Arian!" Maki nods at her brother with a huge smile on her face.

Gavin couldn't help but be affected by Maki's smile, noticing that he himself is smiling as well. "I know a good place that sells coffee," he suggests to the siblings.

"I prefer tea," Blaze interferes quite stubbornly.

"And I'd rather have juice!" Maki tells her own two cents as well.

"They have those, too," Gavin tells them all. "Coffee, tea, juice, you name it."

"Then lead the way, Gavin!" Maki energetically commands, to which Gavin follows.

Gavin happily leads the way, with Alice quickly tailing behind him to ask more about the barrier in interest. The three others are a bit behind, looking at each other with knowing looks.

"I don't like him." Was the first thing Arian told the two youngest, crossing his arms in a stubborn manner as he glanced up ahead for a split second.

Blaze nods his head as well. "He was beginning to act strange when he knew who I am, who we are," he whispers, taking extra precautions just in case Gavin himself is listening.

"Isn't it because he's a really big fan of us or something?" Maki questions her brothers, an eyebrow raised with a finger on her chin. "I'd act weird, too, if I were to meet famous people."

"But he called me accursed," Blaze then tells them this new information with both his eyebrows raised. "I'm completely sure that I never let any articles write that down about me."

"Articles aren't all truths, but they aren't all lies, either," Arian warns them. "They must've known that fact from someone else, not telling us what they would publish."

"So he's suspicious just because he knows you're cursed?" Maki, once again, asks with her voice lowered uncharacteristically. 

Blaze shot her a look, "You know I don't like spreading that fact around, Maki." He breathes out using his nose, refraining himself from rolling his eyes.

"We should just keep an eye on him, then," Arian had decided for the three of them. "He's helping us, after all, but we shouldn't let our guard down."

"Yeah," agreed Maki, "Especially because I don't like how he's stealing Alice's attention from us."

Chuckling, Arian nods his head as an agreement. He ruffles Maki's hair, and the female swats his hand away in annoyance.

"That's all you care about, really?" Blaze then asks, huffing in agitation. He crosses his arms over his chest, gritting his teeth to not let any more words to escape him that would trigger Maki.

Well, too late, Maki is triggered either way.

Maki pushes Blaze away from her, but not enough that he would fall. Just enough that he would stagger on his own two feet, to which Maki laughs at without shame.

Just when Blaze was about to take revenge, Alice looks behind her and notices what's about to happen. "Hey, you two, not here," she warms them seriously.

"We're here already." Gavin opens the door for Alice to enter, to which the black haired mage accepts with a small smile on her face.

Maki rushes after her sister, grinning. "Wait for me, Alice!" She calls out gleefully, locking her arm around Alice's own.

Blaze ignores Gavin, entering the restaurant as if he owns the place. Next, Arian shows Gavin a friendly smile, gesturing forward. "You first, kind sir," he says in a joking manner.

"Don't mind if I do," Gavin plays along as well, going ahead of Arian.

Arian is the last to enter, the smile on his face faltering when he sees that Gavin is trying to take the seat beside Alice. He makes his way to their table, his eyes observing every move that Gavin would make.

It took them awhile, but they were finally able to order their food for the start of the day. They all, except Gavin, ordered something heavy to eat, being taught that way since a young age.

They resumed to talk about the barrier, exchanging tactics and ideas on how to destroy the magic barrier that separates them from Wolf Brotherhood. The food is then brought to them, and they began to eat while still discussing about the barrier and what comes after that.

It took them thirty minutes to finish their breakfast, and another thirty minutes to finish planning on how will they approach and defeat Wolf Brotherhood. Once they were done, they left the restaurant to put their plan into action.

"I want to get this over with already!" Maki says with excitement, stretching her arms and cracking her knuckles at the same time. 

The five are already making their way to the woods located in the south part of the town. The plan is to try to pinpoint where the hideout would be, and they would draw Wolf Brotherhood out to negotiate with their minds or with their fists.

Halfway through the woods, Alice looks at Arian and curtly nods her head. "You're up, Arian."

At her words, Arian then activates his spell of magic eyes. The spell gives him the abilities to see anything that is made of magic around the area as far as his eyes could see, be it invisible or too small for normal people. This gives him the advantage of heightening his eyesight even better. And as he looks around, walking even further in, he spots a large blue magic barrier circling around a specific area.

"Found anything?" Alice asks, nearing towards her brother. She really wishes that she could see what Arian sees, since barriers are suppose to be her expertise; but she isn't as professional as she thought she is on that field. 

"You're next, Maki." Arian takes a few steps back, giving Maki some space. "A medium sized circle, by the looks of it. Go crazy."

Smugly, Maki smirks and takes Arian's spot. "Gladly." She slammed both of her fists twice, kneeling afterwards. She pounds both her fists on the ground, making her hands covered with rock like armor. Repeatedly, she hits the ground with her rock covered fists, making the area around them shake.

Arian protectively stands by Alice and Blaze, being observant of the happenings around them. 

And Gavin isn't that far from Maki, anticipating if their plan would work.

"It isn't enough," Blaze then says, noticing that they're the only people in the place. "Wolf Brotherhood obviously thinks that we'll stop soon."

"I'm not done yet!!" Maki yells over her shoulder, "I can do this!" Her words are more directed to herself, hyping herself up even more. Maki slams both her fists on the hard ground, " _ **Crumble**_!!"

The ground they stood on suddenly had cracks, and even Maki shook as she stood up and looked over her siblings. "That should have done the trick," she says with a satisfied smile on her face.

When it was finally silent, the ground within the magic barriers area opened up. And out came five men, most of them looking pissed as hell. They all sport ragged clothing, including their cloaks that had several small holes.

"Well, well, who do we have here?" The one who looks like the oldest among them says with a playful smirk on his face. 

"Mages, who we're suppose to crush, sent by the mayor, I believe." Answered a comrade, his arms crossed. 

The five men ran out of their safe zone, yelling as they brought out their weapons or whatever magic they possess.

" _ **Ice Shower**_!" Arian summons a magic circle above the enemies, and arrows made out of ice appeared and shot through them.

One man down, the four continued on. Blaze is quick to pull out his weapon, the dagger in his inner pocket, and he throws it precisely on a man's thigh. The man then falls, seething in pain.

Maki pulls her arm back, throwing a punch to one who came running at her with her fist still covered in rocks. The taller man had flown from the impact, landing on his comrade whom Blaze had beaten. The two laid on the ground, barely conscious.

There are two left, and both run to Alice and Gavin who has not done anything so far to injure them. With only their fists, they defend themselves from the enemy. 

The one who goes to Gavin quickly thrusts his dagger, to which Gavin dodges. He grabs the man's wrists, pulling them behind his back and stealing the dagger. He now has two, the one he stole and the other his own, and he uses both to wound the enemy in front of him. The gash on his cheek isn't enough to kill, obviously, and Gavin finishes him off by punching him square on the face twice.

Meanwhile, the one with Alice throws a punch, and she barely avoids it by ducking her head. Stretching her arm upwards, she punches the man's chin and using her other hand to punch his guts. The man falls, and Alice places her foot on the man's torso. "Stay down. Are you the one who activated the barrier around here?"

Stubbornly, the man doesn't answer. In annoyance, Alice rolls her eyes and lightly tapped his forehead. " _ **Sleep**_." The man is then out in a second.

"Obviously, the one who had casted the barrier is not among them," Alice sighs at the fact. "It would be unwise to let him be on the battlefield with his life and the magic barrier on the line."

"Doesn't matter," Arian then says, "Because now the barrier is deactivated and we can go through."

The five then slowly but surely passed the place where a magic barrier was suppose to be. Then, they continued to walk down the path where the previous Wolf Brotherhood men had came from.

When they arrived at the bottom, however, they were immediately taken aback to what they have seen.

"What exactly...?" Maki hid slightly behind Blaze, her eyes as wide as they can be. 

"Now this is odd," Blaze simply says, looking like he isn't fazed by what is in front of him at all.

Right in front of them, are the rest of the Wolf Brotherhood men. They're all around the place, pale and unconscious or maybe dead. Some had a book in their grasp, having their eyes open and mouth agape as if they were in pain before they turned to whatever they are right now.

Alice looks closer, and her gaze hardens when she sees a symbol on all of their foreheads. The symbol is a star that is upside down with ancient writing in it, and it seems to be written in blood.

"Is something the matter?" Gavin asks them, curious and not knowing what exactly is right in front of him.

"... No. Let's get the books and get the hell out of here," Alice answers immediately. She quickly picks up the books that are closest to her, and Gavin and her siblings follow suit.

They left the place as soon as they've gotten all the books in their grasps. It was quite quiet, seeming to be traumatized by what they have seen underground.

They reached the mayor's mansion in no time, and they had given the books and received their rewards from Yama.

"Thank you all for your help. I do not know how to repay you from what you all have done, so please just come to me if ever you need assistance on anything at all." Those were Yama's words as they left the mansion eagerly.

"Leaving already, guys?" Gavin calls out to them when he realizes that the four siblings are headed to the train station.

"We need to go back home, Gavin. So, of course," Maki answers him with a tired smile on her face.

"To Fairy Tail?" Gavin asks, quite taken aback. 

"Yes, Gavin, to Fairy Tail that is our one and only home," Alice then says. "We've done the job, received the rewards and shared some with you as well, right?"

"Yeah, but..." Gavin looks down, closing his eyes shut as blush rose from his cheeks.

"We'll get the tickets, Alice," Arian says casually. "You can catch up in a bit." He leads his two other siblings with him to the train station to get their tickets, leaving Alice with Gavin.

Alice doesn't stop her siblings, and waits for them to leave before she speaks. "What is it, Gavin?" 

"... Can I write to you?" Gavin almost sputters out the question, scratching the back of his head as he glances at Alice's face for a second.

Blush rose on Alice's cheeks as well, but she acts as if they aren't there. "... That would be appreciated, Gavin, of course you can write to me. Just use Fairy Tail's address to make it easier."

"A-Alright." Awkwardly, Gavin nods his head in understanding.

"I'll see you around, then," Alice offers a small smile, turning around as she bids farewell.

Gavin watches as Alice walks away from him. He doesn't leave until he doesn't see her anymore, and until his heart isn't racing in an abnormal manner.


	8. Resort

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that the story isn't progressing too fast?
> 
> Anyways, I imagined the Castro siblings with these characters in mind:
> 
> Arian - Ouma Shuu (Guilty Crown)  
> Alice - Eru Chitanda (Hyouka)  
> Blaze - Yukine (Noragami)  
> Maki - Amu Hinamori (Shugo Chara)
> 
> Not exactly the same, but somewhat. All their eye colors are red and maybe the heights are altered a bit differently. 
> 
> Just a little something to help you readers visualize.

Being shaken up awake isn't exactly ideal to most people, and that especially applies for Alice who absolutely loves her time of napping.

"Wake up, Alice!!" Two voices are calling for her, to which she angrily ignores. There's more pushing and beckonings, but Alice didn't listen and stubbornly ignores them.

There's a bit of shuffling, then a flick on her forehead. That's definitely only Arian's doing, being the only one with the guts to actually wake Alice up from her napping in such a way.

Alice then stirs awake, and opens one eye tiredly. "What do you want?" She harshly asks the question with her face contorted to a agitated expression, her voice a bit groggy.

"The train is in need of a rest," Arian answers casually, his arms crossed as he stood in front of the black haired female. "We're given tickets for free to a resort nearby as compensation for the inconvenience, so we can't simply stay here and waste the opportunity."

"A resort?" Alice echoes, both her eyes now open. She blinks once, then twice, in disbelief of what has just occurred. It's been awhile since she's been in one, and knowing that somehow something happened to the train really bothered her.

"A resort!" Repeated Maki from behind Arian, grinning ever so enthusiastically at the simple fact. She couldn't wait to do lots of fun things while in the resort, since it's really only a rare happening to them.

Sluggishly, Alice moved to stand up. Blaze passes his older sister her belongings, not wanting to delay themselves any further. "Hurry up, we can't let the conductor wait for us for too long," he beckons his older sister quite impatiently.

The four then got out of the train, following the path to go and enter the resort. They were welcomed by the staff, and then they were given two rooms that was already paid by the conductor of the train.

**⎟▽⎢**

  
It all felt so unreal. What were the chances that the train would suddenly get broken in the middle of the journey, and a resort was just nearby for the passengers to stay in? This all just seemed so suspicious, or maybe Blaze was just thinking too much.

Alice and Maki shared a room, while Arian and Blaze shared another. Their rooms were just right in front of each other, so they were literally only a few steps and a call away if anything happens.

"It's been awhile since we've been in a resort.." Arian then says out of the blue, slowly getting on the bed to lay down and relax. He relishes the soft mattress below him, having not been able to be on a proper bed ever since they've left Floro Town which was almost three days ago.

Blaze nodded his head in agreement. "I agree. It's actually been too long. But isn't it quite odd?" He then asks his older brother, wanting to know if he felt the same weird feeling in his gut.

"It is," Arian hums, flipping to his side so that he could look at Blaze properly. "But I think we do deserve a break, don't you think? We've been through quite a lot recently, especially with that Phantom attack, and with what we saw in Floro Town."

When Arian mentions Floro Town, Blaze looks down on his hands. The image of what they saw in the cave came back to his mind. The symbol of a upside down star with ancient symbols definitely isn't a good sign at all. "... I thought that the Justice Order was dead?" He asks, his voice low and quiet.

"Well.." Arian breathes out stressfully, understanding where Blaze is coming from. "Whatever happens, we still have each other, right?" He tells Blaze im reassurance, not wanting him to feel unsafe.

Blaze clenches his right hand into a fist, courageously nodding his head as an answer. "Yeah. And I won't be letting anyone die this time. Not on my watch."

Arian springs up from his bed, stretching his arms upwards while smiling widely. "Look at you, so brave and strong," he jokes, chuckling to himself. "No one blames you for mom and dad's death, you know." Arian walks up to his brother and ruffles his hair.

"I do.." Blaze says in such a guilty manner that Arian couldn't almost recognize his brother.

"But even so," Arian protests, taking ahold of Blaze's shoulder to make them face each other. "You have to move on, and be strong for mom and dad."

Blaze harshly pushes Arian's hand away, standing up and dusting his clothes. "I know, I am," he declares, looking as serious as ever.

Before Arian could utter anything else, they were interrupted by a knock on the door. "Arian, Blaze? Come out so that we can have dinner together!" Came Maki's voice from the other side of the door.

Arian looks at Blaze, offering him a reassuring smile. "You're not alone, Blaze."

Blaze shoots his older brother a somewhat thankful look, and then he walks up to the door with his hands in his pockets. "Let's go to the casino afterwards!"

"You're still underaged!" Is Maki's reply when Blaze opens the door for the four siblings to be able to see each other properly.

"I don't listen to you," Blaze answers harshly, giving Maki a sharp glare that made even Arian flinch.

Maki pouts, stepping back so that Blaze and Arian could leave the room. And when Blaze steps out of the room, Alice hits him on the head not so softly.

"Ow! Why woul–"

"You're still underaged." Alice repeats Maki's words to her younger brother, giving him a warning look that they all knew very well.

"I'm definitely not underaged," Arian hopefully stated, hands behind his head as he walked after his three siblings.

"Unfair!" Maki whines, waving her hands sidewards like a kid. "I wanna play games, too, Alice!" She cries out, giving her sister puppy eyes and pouty lips to somehow persuade her.

Alice slowly shook her head in response. "You're definitely not going, Maki. Do you even know how dangerous it is for a girl like you to be in a casino?"

"Unfair.." Is all that Maki could mumble and utter to herself, her arms crossed over her torso until they reached the restaurant next to the hotel building.

**⎟▽⎢**

  
After taking their sweet time in eating and talking with one another, the Castro siblings then decided to take a stroll at the beach. The sun had just began to set, and they definitely weren't going to let this opportunity of watching a sunset slip through their fingers so easily.

"I'm going ahead," Blaze informs his siblings casually, hands in his pockets as he advanced even further the beach. He wanted to have some alone time by himself for a few minutes, and he thinks that now is the right time for it.

"Did you hear some of the people?" Maki then asked to remove the silence between them, "They were talking about Fairy Tail.."

"It seems like some of our members were here last night, too," Alice nodded her head, catching on to what Maki was saying.

"I'm sure that they're fine," Arian says without a doubt. "They have Erza with them, I'm sure that she'll keep Natsu and Gray in check."

Meanwhile, for Blaze, he walked until he reached what seems like the end of the beach, a huge cliff that tourists or swimmers were able to climb and walk on. Blaze analyzes the cliff, and he swears that he saw something move in the shadows.

He takes a few cautious steps forward, his hand ready to take out a dagger just in case something or someone pops out.

The sun was almost completely gone by now. The moon slowly began to rise, and the place also darkened the tiniest bit by the minute.

And just when Blaze decided that it must be his imagination, he had let his guard down. He hears a splash in the ocean and turns his head, and someone quickly emerges from the shadows of the cliff and lunged at Blaze.

Blaze reacted quick, but not quick enough that he was not touched. A sharp blade managed to touch him lightly on his cheek, and his attacker held him captive with both hands around his neck.

".. Ack.. Hgh.." Blaze felt his air supply run short. He looked at his attacker quite weakly, and realized that the person had his face covered except for his eyes. He stares, and lifted his arms to somehow pull back the hands of his attacker.

"Not so strong now, huh, Castro Demon?" The attacker maliciously says, chuckling. "If you're as strong as the magazines says, why don't you show me? Unless you want yourself to die here and now, without your precious siblings," he taunts, not letting the grip that he has on Blaze weaken.

Not having any other choice, Blaze held unto his attacker's hands even tighter. Then, magic energy began to seep through his hands and unto the enemy.

At first, the enemy felt nothing. Not until moments later, he groans and he had to drop Blaze immediately. "... What the?"

Blaze weakly but cockily smirks at his accomplishment. He let's himself breathe for a moment, and then he faces his enemy head on. "Who are you and what do you want?"

Hastily taking a step back, the enemy's eyes squint. "You're going to pay for that," he says harshly, not bothering to answer Blaze's question.

"Blaze!!"

The attacker looks behind Blaze and sees that the other siblings are running towards them. He mutters curses to himself, knowing that he can't take on the four siblings alone.

But before the other three were able to come near Blaze, a portal appears right in front of their eyes. The attacker gives them all one last look, before running into the portal and having it close after him.

"What was that?" Maki is the first to reach Blaze, breathing ragged and her hair all over the place.

".. I don't know," Blaze answers, looking down at his hands.

"Are you alright?" Arian comes near him and check if his younger brother had any injuries. Noticing the small scratch, he looks at Alice.

Alice nods her head, walking up to Blaze. "We can't stay here any longer," she tells her siblings. "Let's go and get some rest so that we can leave early in the morning."

"But I don't want to leave yet, Alice." With a pout, Maki walks over to her older sister and whines like a child. "I still want to go swimming and relax."

Arian ruffles Maki's hair, smiling to give her some assurance. "Maybe some other time, Maki. Knowing that Blaze was attacked is a warning to us now, and we can't stay in a place where we aren't safe."

".." Maki stares at all of her older siblings in a sad manner. She thought that staring at them wordlessly would win them over, but she gave up because they really seemed serious. She sighs, nodding in defeat and slumping her shoulders.

"We're much more safer in Fairy Tail," Alice informs Maki with a small smile as she guides the younger female back to the hotel building.

The four then went back to their respective rooms, preparing for their trip back to Magnolia tomorrow.


	9. Home

It took the Castro siblings almost two whole days to go back to Fairy Tail by train. There weren't, thankfully, any accidents this time. Blaze didn't let his guard down even a single moment; even going so far as to secretly hold his dagger in his sleep. The other siblings were also glad that nothing else happened to them on the way back, although Maki did still really want to stay.

The four returned to Fairy Tail during the bright but hot afternoon immediately after getting off the train station. And they were surprised to find a new and seemingly very different version of Fairy Tail.

"We even have a outdoor café outside!" Maki excitedly tells her siblings, who weren't as excited as her, as they walked inside the very building. "This is really cool!"

"Max was even selling some merchandise outside, too," Blaze had pointed out as well, looking around the large guild hall that was filled with tables and benches for the many members. It looked so spacious, but Blaze does like the different air around them.

Alice makes her way towards the bar, sighing while she's taking a stool for herself to sit down and rest. She sees the white haired barmaid come out of the back room, and she offers her a small smile. ".. Hey, Mira. We're back." With a knowing look, Alice greets her close friend and guild mate.

"Welcome back, Team Castro!" Mirajane waves to the four siblings, and the other three approach the bar as well. The barmaid positions herself in front of them, the usual smiley expression on her face. "It seems like you came back before Team Natsu," she mentions casually to the four.

Maki hums, nodding her head to herself proudly. "Naturally," in a cocky manner, Maki responds to Mirajane's statement back while taking the spot next to her older sister. 

Blaze lightly hits the back of Maki's head, irritated but not fully showing it. "Don't get too ahead of yourself," he tells her off with the usual harsh tone of his.

Arian sits on Alice's other side, looking at Mirajane with that seemingly carefree look on his face. "I'll have a mug of booze, please." It isn't the first time he's ever asked for booze, so the small group of mages aren't surprised at all. "I didn't get to drink while we were at the resort.." He mumbles then to himself, a bit disappointed.

Blaze then absentmindedly touches the scratch he got the other night. It didn't hurt at all, although feeling the wound made him remember how that evening went for him. It somehow became a reminder for him, almost mocking him that he wasn't able to be on guard.

Mirajane notices Blaze's actions, and the scratch doesn't go unnoticed as well. "How did the job go?" She let's curiosity take over her and ask, going through the cupboards to find a empty and clean mug for Arian's request.

The youngest sibling perks up in interest at the question. "It was a bit difficult, so someone from the town helped us!" She answers Mirajane's question almost instantly. "He even has a crush on Alice!" The youngest points to her older sister innocently.

Mirajane giggles in amusement, finding Maki's gesture a bit humorous while she's filling a mug with booze and passing it on to Arian. "Oh, my," she giggles to herself, covering her mouth with one hand. "Alice always has many admirers. Many people send her mail in a week."

Alice remembers what she told Gavin before she left. She shakes her head, sighing to herself. "He even wanted to send me letters.." She grumbles, puffing some air out of her mouth and blowing her bangs away slightly, the small action doing no justice in revealing her irritation.

"Did you give Gavin our address?" A bit wide eyed, Blaze then pops up the certain question. He really didn't want to deal with getting tons of mail just for her sister at their humble apartment. Plus, their landlord wouldn't exactly be the most happy one about it, either.

"Of course not," Alice fires back an answer. "Do you even know how dangerous would it be if someone outside the guild knows our address?" She shoots them all a knowing look. Given their popularity because of their family name and reputation being in Fairy Tail, it's quite a hassle to deal with strangers who know where they live.

"So did you tell this Gavin guy to send the letters here to Fairy Tail?" Mirajane then questions next, trying to remember if she saw anyone named Gavin give a letter to Alice in the guild mail. If she remembers right, there isn't one yet.

Alice slowly nods her head, wanting to change topic and not wanting to let her mind linger about Gavin and his mails too much. He does seem like a good guy, but she doesn't have time for guys or any kind of romance at the moment.

There's quite a commotion all of a sudden, and Mirajane and the Castro siblings look at the entrance and find Team Natsu. The newly arrived members were surprised by the sudden change of the guild, and Levy shows them around a bit.

"Oh, looks like Team Natsu is also back," Mirajane states the obvious, watching as they look around the guild in awe.

Maki quickly stands up and runs towards the other group of mages, wanting to greet and welcome them back to the guild. "Lucy-san, Erza-san, welcome back!" She enthusiastically greets the two older females, smiling so wide and bright.

The scarlet and blonde haired female mages look at Maki with surprised expressions, but then they let themselves smile because of her enthusiastic aura at the moment. It's quite refreshing.

Alice isn't far behind Maki, either. "Seems like you guys were a bit troubled in your mission?" She takes one look at Erza and decided to ask the other members of Team Natsu.

"Nothing we can't handle," Gray dismisses the question easily, waving his hand in a leisure manner. He didn't want to tell them what exactly happened, knowing that whatever happened to them is something that only they'll know until they're ready to tell the others about it.

Blaze then turns to Natsu, lifting an eyebrow in question at his weird, grumbling behavior. "What's up with you, Natsu?" He asks curiously just in time for Happy to land on top of his head.

"Natsu doesn't like how different the guild is," Happy mentions, looking down on Blaze. "What happened to your face?" He returns a question as well, curiously looking down on Blaze's face.

"Just a tiny scratch," Blaze simply answers, not telling them the whole truth to avoid having them fuss and worry about him. And his gaze averts to Erza and the bandages around her arms and leg. "I'm sure it's nothing compared to Erza's own."

"But I'm sure that Erza-san handled it just fine!" Confidently, Maki defends the requip mage, looking up at Erza with stars in her eyes in awe. And the Knight is taken aback by Maki's sudden aggresiveness, but her expressions dissolves into a soft smile once again.

Gray ruffles Maki's hair, chuckling at her change of attitude. "Yeah, don't worry so much, kid." He knows that Maki really looks up to Erza and has pride in her strength, just as he does, but he didn't want the young mage to worry about them too much.

Alice smiles at the small interactions, and Lucy also couldn't help but crack a smile as well. "They get along well, don't they?" The blonde tells Alice, giggling as Maki pushes Gray's hand away and complains about not being a child anymore.

"Yeah, they do." Alice agrees, reminiscing the times when Maki used to cling unto Gray when she was much more younger. "And I'm taking that you did well in your mission with them?" She then asks Lucy to make a conversation with the blonde. 

".. Well, things took a different turn.." Lucy sweat drops as she remembers what happened in the resort and in the Tower of Heaven not too long ago for them.

Hearing the distressed answer, Alice didn't push any questions any further. She didn't want to force Lucy into anything, since Alice herself isn't going to spill to what happened to them in the resort.

"My, it seems like everyone is back from their mission?" Master Makarov then walks up to them, looking very much alive and well as if the Phantom attack didn't happen at all.

"Master!" Both teams greeted the head master, either in happiness or surprise in seeing him.

They were all about to crowd and ask him how he is, but then they spot a certain blue haired mage just right behind Makarov.

Some of them reacted in surprise when Makarov announces that she, Juvia Lockster, is a new member of the guild. And the master simply brushes off the members who demanded to know why was she accepted here.

And, moments later, Makarov introduces another new member as well. Gajeel Redfox, also known as the dragon slayer who had attacked Team Shadow Gear and the guild itself as well.

"He's not really a bad guy, you know... Or I don't think he is.."

"If that's what you say, Master.." Alice doesn't argue any further when Makarov says that, looking up as Natsu bickers and almost picks a fight with Gajeel. 

"But we still do have to put him under observation," Erza then maturely decided, her expression quite grim as she eyes Gajeel.

Maki looks over at the long haired dragon slayer who yells and bickers back at Natsu, scrutinizing him. "He doesn't look all that bad, right? It's just the irons in his face that makes him look scary." 

"Just don't go too near him," Blaze warns his younger sister cautiously, crossing his arms over his torso. "He damaged the guild and almost took out three of our guild members. Even I don't feel as safe anymore." His voice is quiet as he spoke, but he swear that the mage not so indirectly mentioned had heard it and even made eye contact with him 

Before they could continue to speak any further, the lights of the guild hall was turned off and everyone was panicking for a few moments. However, the stage lights caught everyone's attention, and they see Mirajane up front with a guitar.

Natsu's face lit up in recognition of the barmaid. "Hey, Mira, we're back!" He loudly announces his team's return with a large smile on his face.

"Welcome back, Team Natsu," Mirajane responds back sweetly. "And to celebrate Team Natsu and Team Castro's return, I will sing this song.."

The barmaid slowly began to play he intrument she held, and she sang beautifully and loudly.

The guild members settled down and listened to Mirajane. And all is, unnaturally, quiet throughout the whole song.

It was so peaceful and soothing that Maki almost fell asleep. She nestled her head in her arms on the table in front of her, and her eyes closed. When Mirajane is done with her performance, Maki is a bit disappointed.

It was dark for a few seconds again, and then when the lights are back on they all spot Gajeel on the stage while wearing an all white suit and shades over his eyes. 

Everything eventually turned into chaos. Gajeel's low and gruff voice was heard throughout the guild; some were amused and cheered him on, while some complained and tried to make him stop.

And then somehow, the guild members were in a all out brawl. Those who didn't want to join were in the bar while Mirajane serves them whatever they requested as they waited for the brawl to be over.

Natsu and Gray were going at it as usual. They had basically dragged almost everyone in the fight again. Gray had managed to push Natsu near the bar, and they did their usual bickering.

"I thought you were going to beat me this time, huh, flame brain?"

"You cheated, snowball!"

Alice had placed a barrier around herself to not be disturbed by the brawl. She wasn't worried much about her other siblings, knowing that they could take care of themselves just fine.

"Oh. Where did Arian go?" Upon noticing the missing presence of her only older brother, Alice opts to question the barmaid. 

Mirajane just finished wiping the counters, and she paused for a moment to think of an answer. "I believe I saw him walk master back up to his office upstairs."

Their short conversation was cut off by a yell just right beside them.

"You almost burned me, Natsu-san!" It's Maki who's yelling at the fire and ice mage. Despite her small stature and age gap between them, she isn't afraid to voice out her complaints. 

"Oops. Sorry about that.." The fire dragon slayer didn't look the tiniest bit sorry as he apologized with a shrug of his shoulders.

"And Gray-san, wear some clothes!" Maki points out, keeping her eyes focused on his face and not anywhere downwards.

"Where did they go!?" Gray still seems so surprised no matter how many times this has happened to him already.

Maki looks annoyed just as usual as the two male mages look at each other and share a laugh. "And keep your fighting away from me!" The pink haired female tells them off for the third time.

By this time, Alice gets up from her seat to walk away from the bar. She knew how this ends. And it's only a matter of time until...

_Three... Two... One..._

"A man can fight anywhere!" Elfman appears right behind Natsu and Gray, raising his arm that had taken the form of another beast's arm. The giant then swings his arm to throw a hit towards Natsu, but he doesn't get to do it because the floor boards beneath him suddenly crack and the take over mage falls into a small pit with a grunt.

Knowing how that came to be, Natsu turns to Maki with a grin. "That's the spirit, Maki!" He cheers, happy that he was able to not take Elfman's hit.

And the young mage is officially a part of their brawl as she suddenly jumps and rolls away from another incoming hit by a barrel. 

"My booze!" Cana comes rushing to the side to pick up her barrel, but Maki kicks it away and throws a punch towards Cana's stomach.

Macao chuckles as he sees the scene. "And there Maki goes!" He cheers, but then gets thrown back by some magic.

And so the brawl continues.

**⎟▽⎢**

"Master.."

"What's bothering you, child?"

In Makarov's office at the second floor of the Fairy Tail guild, there sat the master and one of his guild members. 

"Justice Order has made a move again." At Arian's words, Makarov's expression turns into one of surpise and disbelief. "I know it. I... We saw their emblem during our last mission in Floro Town."

Makarov does his best to remain calm. He relaxes in his seat, and looks over at the brown haired male in front of him. "Hm. Then what do you plan to do? They haven't made any direct contact with you, have they?" 

"Not exactly.." Arian shook his head. "But Blaze was attacked by someone. He disappeared before we even got to him. So I plan to end this all before it even starts."

"I forbid you," Makarov immediately disagrees, crossing his arms sternly. "It's not something that you can do alone, Arian."

"But I need to do it!" Arian raises his voice a bit, looking down at his hands that slightly shaked. "I need to take them out before my siblings and I get into more trouble, before they do something that involves the guild!"

"I will not let my child go alone and sacrifice his life!" Makarov, too, raises his voice a bit. Arian is taken aback, and he looks at the old man with wide eyes. ".. If they decide to attack us, then so be it. But I will not let you give away your life so easily. Fairy Tail will not be taken down just like that."

At hearing Makarov's words, Arian couldn't help but smile. He was inspired and really happy that the master thinks so. "... Thank you, Master."

Makarov then cracks a smile on his face. "It's not a problem at all, my boy. Anything for my children's safety."

"But just so you know, we're up against assassins. Professional killers since my father's time," Arian informs Makarov, a bit grim as he mentions his father.

"Whoever stands before our family, won't be given any mercy. Especially from me."

Arian definitely felt reassured and safe at Makarov's declaration this time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm @EllurGrace on twt if you want to talk hehe


	10. Ruined Festival

"Bye for now, everyone! I'll see you tomorrow!"

"Don't forget that we'll start the preparations for the Festival tomorrow."

"Copy that, Mira-san!"

It was in the late afternoon when the four siblings, mainly Alice, had decided to head home for the day. Like what Mirajane had mentioned, they're going to start preparing for the Festival tomorrow and it's better for them to get as much rest as they can.

It's quite a walk before they arrive at their place. Although it does depend on how slow or fast they're travelling, it still is quite a distance that would take almost twenty minutes.

Maki walked ahead of them, just like always when they're heading home. Blaze isn't far behind her, observing the people around them and making sure that there aren't any suspicious people around.

Arian would usually keep any pace he was in the mood for. And right now, he's keeping a rather slow and steady pace as he blankly looks in front of him. He seems to be deep in thought, not noticing Alice's presence just right beside him.

"So what's your real plan about Justice Order?" Going straight to the point, Alice questioned her brother. there was no point in indirectly asking him and wasting their time, so she just straight out asked him just like that.

Arian glances at Alice, looking not so surprised that she somehow knows of his plan. "You heard, huh?" He puts his hands behind his head nonchalantly, releasing a heavy sigh. "I guess that's expected of you, but I've already forgotten that.." He averts his gaze downwards to their feet, watching themselves walk in silence.

"Did you really think that you could keep it from me, though?" Alice questions again, lightly rolling her eyes. "I'd eventually find out one way or another anyway, so why try to hide it from me?" She's not going to lie, she was a bit hurt, but she also understands where her brother is coming from all of this.

"I know, I know.." Arian shakes his head, pressing his lips into a tight, thin line. "But I just wanted you three to be safe, and also the guild. If ever it didn't go well, at least I tried to stop Justice Order from their plans."

"I can always come, you know," Alice suggests, knowing that she will be useful to her brother. "And is a full on attack what you really want? I believe going undercover to spy on them is a much more better idea."

"I like where this is going. We'll have to discuss it with Blaze and Maki, too, over dinner."

"Sure thing."

**⎟▽⎢**

  
_It was a few years after the third Castro child was born when Justice Order had become an official guild. It was a guild made solely for the guild's members to avenge and bring so called justice to their enemies. And it was never a good idea to begin with._

_Many_ _guild_ _members_ _held_ _a_ _grudge_ _against_ _Abel_ _and_ _Shira_ _Castro_ _,_ _the_ _parents_ _of_ _the_ _Castro_ _children_ _._ _The_ _duo_ _had_ _apparently_ _either_ _killed_ _or_ _harmed_ _someone_ _they_ _cared_ _about_ _,_ _or_ _did_ _something_ _to_ _foil_ _their_ _evil_ _plans_ _._ _And_ _so_ _,_ _they_ _wanted_ _to_ _get_ _revenge_ _._

_However_ _,_ _the_ _guild_ _couldn't_ _pinpoint_ _where_ _exactly_ _in_ _the_ _country_ _do_ _they_ _live_ _,_ _and_ _so_ _it_ _took_ _awhile_ _._

_About_ _two_ _years_ _after_ _Blaze_ _Castro's_ _birth_ _,_ _Shira_ _had_ _given_ _birth_ _again_ _to_ _another_ _child_ _._ _However_ _,_ _giving_ _birth_ _to_ _her_ _fourth_ _child_ _had_ _taken_ _quite_ _a_ _toll_ _on_ _her_ _health_ _._ _Shira_ _passed_ _away_ _almost_ _a_ _year_ _later_ _,_ _and_ _word_ _had_ _somehow_ _spread_ _across_ _the_ _land_ _._

_Justice_ _Order_ _had_ _,_ _obviously_ _,_ _gotten_ _word_ _about_ _it_ _._ _And_ _the_ _members_ _set_ _out_ _to_ _find_ _the_ _husband_ _of_ _the_ _deceased_ _Shira_ _Castro_ _._

_And_ _it_ _took_ _them_ _five_ _years_ _to_ _find_ _Abel_ _and_ _form_ _a_ _plan_ _on_ _how_ _to_ _exactly_ _finish_ _him_ _off_ _._

_It_ _was_ _a_ _dark_ _,_ _quiet_ _evening_ _in_ _the_ _area_ _where_ _the_ _Castro_ _family_ _lives_ _._ _It_ _was_ _bed_ _time_ _for_ _the_ _children_ _,_ _and_ _Abel_ _was_ _saying goodbye and goodnight to_ _his_ _children_ _in_ _their_ _shared_ _bedroom_ _._

_After_ _bidding_ _his_ _children_ _goodnight_ _,_ _Abel_ _swore_ _that_ _he_ _heard_ _a_ _noise_ _outside_ _of_ _the_ _bedroom_ _._ _He_ _cautiously_ _looks_ _at_ _his_ _chilren_ _who_ _were_ _ready_ _to_ _get_ _some_ _shut_ _eye_ _,_ _except_ _for_ _his_ _last_ _born_ _who_ _was_ _already_ _asleep_ _in_ _his_ _bed_ _._

_".._ _Dad_ _,_ _what_ _was_ _that_ _?"_ _Voice_ _shaking_ _,_ _his_ _eldest_ _son_ _asks_ _him_ _._ _The_ _fear_ _was_ _clearly_ _evident_ _in_ _his_ _red_ _hued_ _eyes_ _,_ _although_ _Arian_ _attempted_ _to_ _seem_ _unafraid_ _as_ _he_ _gripped_ _the_ _blanket_ _cocooned_ _around_ _his_ _body_ _._

_Abel_ _had_ _a_ _hunch_ _that_ _someone_ _had_ _finally_ _found_ _his_ _location_ _._ _He_ _knew_ _that_ _this_ _would_ _happen_ _,_ _and_ _he_ _had_ _accepted_ _his_ _fate_ _long_ _ago_ _already_ _when_ _his_ _wife_ _had_ _been_ _feeling_ _ill_ _before_ _her_ _death_ _._

_Abel_ _looks_ _at_ _Arian_ _with_ _a_ _sad_ _smile_ _,_ _and_ _he_ _kneels_ _by_ _the_ _side_ _of_ _his_ _bed_ _to_ _come_ _face_ _to_ _face_ _with_ _his_ _son. "_ _Listen_ _carefully_ _,_ _Arian_ _,_ _you_ _need_ _to_ _protect_ _your_ _siblings_ _,_ _alright_ _?_ _You_ _have_ _to_ _stay_ _strong_ _for_ _them_ _."_ _His_ _words_ _were_ _strict_ _and_ _firm_ _,_ _just_ _like_ _how_ _he_ _would_ _speak_ _when_ _he_ _was_ _teaching_ _his_ _son_ _how_ _to_ _use_ _his_ _magic_ _._

_"_ _But_ _.."_

_"_ _No_ _matter_ _what_ _,_ _you_ _must_ _protect_ _them_ _._ _I_ _believe_ _in_ _you_ _,_ _and_ _you_ _must_ _believe_ _in_ _yourself_ _and_ _the_ _magic_ _that_ _I've_ _taught_ _you_ _."_ _Abel_ _took_ _a_ _few_ _moments_ _to_ _look_ _into_ _Arian's_ _eyes_ _,_ _making_ _sure_ _that_ _he's_ _drilled_ _into_ _his_ _mind_ _of_ _these_ _words_ _._

_"_ _I'm_ _not_ _strong_ _enough_ _.."_ _Arian_ _clenched_ _his_ _fist_ _underneath_ _the_ _blanket_ _,_ _holding_ _back_ _tears_ _miserably_ _._

_Disregarding_ _his_ _words_ _,_ _Abel_ _ruffles_ _Arian's_ _hair_ _. "Remember,_ _I_ _believe_ _in_ _you_ _."_

_"_ _Dad_ _..!"_

**⎟▽⎢**

  
The wizards of Fairy Tail were finally beginning to help out in preparation for the Harvest Festival. The guild members were roaming around and looking at all the stalls and other townspeople, but soon enough they all gathered into the guild's hall to start the very much awaited Miss Fairy Tail Contest.

The Castro siblings also stayed in the guild hall, blending in and enjoying the contest with their other guild members. It was as loud and rowdy as ever, something they all were quite used to already.

"Not joining the contest this year either, Alice?" A certain ice mage pops up the question when he musters enough courage to open his mouth and talk to the female mage just right beside him on the table.

Alice shakes her head in response, prompting her chin on her hand as she leans on the table. "Not a chance, Gray. These types of contests are not my type." She breathes out a sigh, a few strands of her bangs flying upwards because of the sudden force.

His lips turn upward into a light smile at her response. "But Maki seems to be enjoying the contest herself." He points out, his dark colored eyes averting to the side of the stage wherein Maki stood, waiting for her turn. The ice mage found it quite adorable, seeing her so competitive. He's basically watched the young teen over the years, and he's always watched out for her like any older brother would do.

Alice switches her gaze up to the stage as Max then comes up, holding a microphone in his hands. "Yeah, I'll let her have her fun this time." She allows herself to smile a bit as well, feeling somewhat at peace in Gray's presence despite the cheering of the crowd literally behind her.

"Contestant number two! After our card master Cana Alberona, we have our very loyal and tough but cute looking Maki Castro!"

Maki strides to the front of the stage, dripping confidence as she beams a wide smile to the crowd while waving her arms. And as she enjoys the cheers of the crowd for her, there was a sudden rumble underneath the floor boards of the guild. A few people became a bit worried, and some even began to panic when the floor was broken and rocks from below flew up in the air. The tiny rocks collided together, and then it molded into a Fairy Tail symbol.

Seeing this, the crowd cheered even more. Maki let's the rocks go back to where they came from, and the stage was back to normal as if nothing happened. Maki bows and beams another smile, before exiting for the next contestant.

"Well, that was quite the show," Gray commented for only him and Alice to hear, a bit astounded to what he's seen. He always seems to be taken into surprise when Maki, or any of her siblings in fact, are involved and show their strength.

"She always takes things over the top.." Alice shakes her head, although Gray could tell that she's also amused because of the way one side of her lip tilted upward into a light smirk.

Elfman, a seat away from Gray, cheers also because the next contestant is his sister. "She's a man, definitely!"

Natsu seems indifferent from all of this. He keeps on eating the food prepared for him earlier by Mirajane, looking up at Alice as he chews his food. "But you guys are hella strong, ain't ya? Going over the top isn't so bad!" He turns the topic into one about strength and fighting once again, something he always does so naturally.

"Yeah, you guys are definitely strong," Gray backs up Natsu's statement as well. "Arian may be on par with Erza, being an S-class wizard." At his mention, he looks around the guild to find the oldest Castro siblings, but didn't find him amidst the crowd.

"That reminds me.." Natsu began, finishing up his food and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Alice tried not to cringe, knowing that this really is how the dragon slayer behaves himself. "I haven't settled with that bastard yet! I'll have to challenge him the next time I see him!" The fire dragon slayer declares, making a promise to himself.

"He'll beat your ass flat again, you dolt.." Gray shakes his head at Natsu's stubborness, sighing because he's never learned from his lesson the last time that he and Arian had fought on a whim a few months ago.

The dragon slayer was about to retort a come back, but they all turn their attention back to the stage when Lucy was called up next. And just when she was about to use her appeal time, someone interrupts her.

"Contestant number nine!"

Alice stares in bewilderment at the light brown haired female who's taking everyone's attention to herself. ".. What?"

"If it's a fairy you seek, here I am. If it's beauty you crave, here I am. Yes, I am everything that you desire. The contest is now over, and the winner is me, Evergreen!" She takes slow steps forward and then eventually reveals her face behind her fan to the people in front of her.

"Evergreen?" Gray and Alice repeat at the same time, eyes never leaving the female with a fairy getup.

"She's back?" Elfman also voices out his surprise and confusion.

As Lucy then complains and yells at Evergreen, Alice tries to act quickly to get on stage.

"Lucy!" Gray calls to his blonde comrade. "Don't look into her eyes!" He tries to warn her, knowing what will happen if you look into the eyes of Evergreen.

But it was too late already. Evergreen lifts her glasses for a bit just enough so that her eyes aren't covered. She looks at Lucy, and the Celestial Wizard immediately turns into stone.

Max tells the watchers to leave and make a run for it, knowing that things may get ugly and the townspeople can't possibly be involved here.

Makarov walks up front, facing Evergreen without any fear. He's enraged at her actions. "What are you doing, Evergreen? Do you wish to ruin the Festival?" The old Master demands from her, not looking even the tiniest bit calm.

"Entertainment is a need in a festival, is it not?" Evergreen wisely retorts back, making the curtains rise behind her. And she shows the figures of the other contestants that have been turned into stone as well.

"Nee-chan!"

"Even Erza, too?!"

"Maki!"

The members who are present voice out their concern and worry for the females who were turned into stone. And all of them were enraged, too.

"You fool! Turn them all back to normal at once!" Makarov commands Evergreen, already shaking in anger.

And the whole guild was surprised yet again when the stage was hit by a flash of lightning. Laxus appears, and he greets them all ever so cockily as if he was above them.

And at seeing Laxus, the other guild members soon notice the whole Raijin Squad as well.

Alice watches as the whole scene unfolds right in front of her very eyes. She couldn't believe that Laxus had planned all this out, challenging the master and saying that the statued ladies are his hostages of a sort.

And after Laxus explains the whole game that he wanted all of them to do, he leaves with another flash of lightning. Alice would have fought him, but she knew that she stood no chance against him. She didn't know what he's capable of, but she knows enough that she's no match for him.

And as almost all the guild members leave to go and fight Laxus and the Raijin Squad, Alice looks around to find her brothers.

_Since_ _Laxus_ _is_ _a s-class_ _wizard_ _,_ _probably_ _only_ _another_ _s-class_ _wizard_ _could_ _take_ _him_ _down_ _,_ Alice had pondered on about. _Mystogan_ _is_ _out_ _of_ _town_ _,_ _and_ _Erza_ _is_ _a_ _stone_ _,_ _Mirajane_ _isn't_ _fit_ _to_ _fight_ _,_ _and_ _so_ _that_ _leaves_ _Arian_ _._


	11. Arian

**Arian's Point of View**

Never in my twenty years of life, or in the four years I've been here in Fairy Tail, did I ever thought of having to battle one of my comrades. As in, battle for real, to whoever couldn't move or stand anymore. It only dawned to me after Laxus had left, officially announcing that the Battle of Fairy Tail has begun, and all my guild mates rushed out to beat the living hell out of Laxus and the Raijin Squad.

I was one of the last who became a s-class wizard about almost two years ago, I believe; I had Alice as my partner and we teleported using her magic to the island, from there we got the safe route and fought some other contestants before I was announced the winner. But the thing is, this battle that Laxus is making us do isn't the same as the s-class exam. 

While everything unfolded, I just stayed in the second floor. I didn't usually really enjoyed the Miss Fairy Tail Contest, although it was amusing to see Maki join in for the past two years. And when the whole chaos thing happened, I kept myself hidden, wanting to catch Laxus by surprise. 

And now that almost everyone has gone out, I'm able to show my face. I descend the stairs calmly, keeping my hands in my trench coat's pockets in a cool manner. Alice spots me, and she immediately runs over to me, the tiniest bit of panic evident in her face. "Arian! I should have known you were hiding yourself. Did you listen to what Laxus had said?" She looks at me as if I was the only one who could do it, and frankly, maybe I am. 

Although, there are still a couple of wizards here who may have a chance against Laxus if they were serious...

"Don't worry, Alice." I ruffle her hair as I take the last few steps down, letting myself grin. "To what Laxus has done to the guild, I'll make him pay." I walk away from her and out of the exit, meeting Master on the way.

".. Arian, you're here?" He looks astounded as he sees me. Well, I can't blame him, I'd like to hide myself sometimes when I'm not in the mood to show myself and socialize with people. 

"Yeah, master." I pound my fist lightly on my chest, showing him a proud smile. "I'll do my best to punch the living hell out of his foolishness." After all, no one messes with my family without getting away with it.

The old man gives me a curt nod. "Be careful out there. Freed has made runes all over the city." At his good advice, I nod my head obediently.

"And I'm going to fight, too."

Turning my head to look at Alice over my shoulder, I was about to oppose and make her stay. But seeing the determination in her eyes, I couldn't find it in myself to protest. 

"Freed's runes may cause the two of you to battle each other, and so I suggest you two to go your separate ways from here," master spoke up to us, being the caring father figure he is to all of us.

"I won't let runes like these to stop me." Alice looks up at the letters in the invible wall rune in front of us, with such a fierce expression on her face that I haven't seen in quite awhile. "Evergreen will pay for turning Maki and the others into stone."

And without delay, Alice and I went out of the guild. I stayed low on the ground, while Alice found her way on top of the houses and shops of the city. 

Fortunately for me, there weren't much active members in the game anymore. Most of them had fought each other until they couldn't go on anymore, and I just know that Laxus is enjoying this maybe a little bit too much. Did he really want to see the people of the guild fight each other like this? It's just too cruel.

Laxus was supposedly one of the kindest back in the day. And I remember it well, when he spoke to me during my first week in Fairy Tail. "As long as you keep the guild safe, then you aren't an enemy of ours." I knew he said that to reassure me because I was having a rather difficult time to adjust to the warm and kind ways of the guild back then. 

Anyone who went near my siblings would immediately receive a glare from me. And even to Erza and Mira, who were basically monsters stuck in the bodies of little girls, I had dared to glare at them when they attempted to talk to Alice and Maki. Mira glared back at me, feeling offended, and she was about to pick a fight with me. Luckily, Laxus had defended me, and I would never forget that. 

And that's why I don't think Laxus is a bad guy. Right now, he is, but deep down there must be that same kindness in him. He may not have shown it the usual way people would do, and the people around him wouldn't really notice it, but it's the little things that made him kind. 

I'm on my way to bring you back to guild, Laxus, just you wait...

**⎟▽⎢**

It's about more or less thirty minutes of running around and avoiding trouble did I then manage to pinpoint the place wherein Laxus is hiding and waiting for all of this to be over. It had dawned on me when I've basically looked around the houses and shops of the different streets and disctricts of the city.

He wouldn't hide just anywhere. He would stay somewhere nice and quiet and away from where people would think he would be at. His personal guards, the Raijin Squad, basically covers the maze of houses and shops thanks to Freed's runes, and so that probably leaves a few more places that I should check.

He wasn't at the park, I've checked. That was a easy spot, so he isn't staying there out in the open. And so many other places aren't good either, which leaves me to...

Kardia Cathedral.

Before I come in and present myself to Laxus, I catch my breath first and tidy myself up a bit. My hair had become a bit messy while I was searching, however it didn't really matter how I looked like because who cares?

"Well, well.."

"Laxus." There's no point in having some chit chat, but I wondered if he had anything good to say before I would officially turn him in.

"I thought it would be Natsu who'd find me," Laxus commented leisurely, keeping up the arrogant and proud façade as he stood confidently not too far away from me. "But instead, it's you, Arian? I'm sure that you'll put up quite the fight. I haven't seen you in action since the last s-class exam, have you gotten better since then?"

For a man of few words when he's at the guild, he's actually quite talkative when he wants to be.

I cast a spell instead of answering his question. " _ **Hellfire!**_ " Now the area around us both are set aflame with red blood fire. It's the kind of fire that would burn anyone if the caster wants to, and right now I just need weaken him for a bit.

And just as I expected, Laxus isn't affected much by the fire. He roars out as he let's out some of his magic power as well. His body seems to spark with lightning, and he diminishes my fire away just like that. Then, he lunges at me, his leg coming up to kick my chest, but I block with both of my arms just in time to push him back. 

Damn, his physical strength is no joke.

"Heh.. You're just like Natsu, aren't ya? Using fire like he does." He uses the kind of tone that would usually tick off anyone, or anyone who's a simpleton. "Where's Arian, the famous spell caster of all the elements? Don't hold back now." His smirk adds up to his taunting, and I have to say that he's doing a good job in provoking me.

"In that case.." With a swipe of my hand, the fire is gone and we're back to normal temperature. "Take this! _**Dark Blast!**_ " Several dark blades of magic come right at him, pushing him a bit back to the wall and creating a small explosion.

"There it is.." Even though he seems to be harmed because of my attacks, Laxus still isn't that bothered at all.

" ** _Sereia's Flood!_** " With another spell, water suddenly comes out of nowhere. I make the water bend until it's trapped Laxus into a ball of water. Lifting him up, I throw him up into the ceiling, making it crack due to the force and weight coming from Laxus.

The blond falls, and he's smirking as he stands up, all bruised up and his clothes damp. "Is this your full power, Arian?" His body is yet again covered with lightning sparking all over, looking dangerous as he takes a stance.

I didn't realize that he had casted a lightning spell until the spell itself had hit me. It caused me to fly backwards, and my back hits a wall, and I fall back to the floor. He's strong, but I'm not giving up just yet.

Standing back up, I ran towards him while roaring out a light spell to temporarily blind him. I jump up, and land a kick to his face. I basically attacked him with my magic and with physical attacks, too. And Laxus would dodge some, but he gets hit as well. He even used his magic on me, but I refused to give up. 

If I couldn't defeat him, then I'm worried that no one will.

" ** _Gabriel's Holy Light!_** " With what magic power I could muster, I cast a spell that would have several, thin light pillars surround his body, and a thick ray of light came from above to attack him straight in the middle of the circle.

My body gives in and I kneel on the floor, hoping that my attacks weren't in vain and that Laxus wouldn't stand back up anymore. But to my dismay, he still did manage to stand back up after all of my attacks. 

And just when I thought that this would be the end, the end of Fairy Tail, because of me, some of my hope was regained when I hazily spot a long and dark cloak enter my line of sight. "Thanks for waiting, Arian. I'll take it from here.." 

Then, everything went black for me.

**⎟▽⎢**

The first thing I see the moment I open my eyes is the beautiful sky above me. There are a rare amount of clouds, and it probably would have been nice for the Festival if only Laxus hadn't initiated that foolish game of his about proving who's the strongest in the guild. Hell, if Guildarts was here, he'd beat the crap out of everyone without much effort. None of us would stand a chance against him, but that's not the point now because he isn't here.

"Arian! Finally, you're awake!" There's someone who pulls me to sit up from the hard and solid ground that I lay on. I wasn't sure who it was until I felt the familiar leather vest on my torso. 

I weakly raised both of my arms to gradually put it around my brother's body and return his hug. "Yeah, I am." I didn't let our hug last too long, although I felt a bit more better about myself because Blaze showed his concern when he doesn't do that often, and pull away to attempt to stand back up to my full height. "What's the current situation now? Has anyone taken down Laxus?" My eyes spot the yellow orb things in the sky that formed a huge circle above the town, and I return my attention back to Blaze to get some explanation.

"Oh, Alice would do better in explaining that to you." Blaze steps back and gestures with his chin to look behind me. "I think it's better that you'd hear from her."

As I am told, I turn around, wincing a bit because my body felt sore. It's the effect of using up my magic power against Laxus, that bastard, and I'll be sure to not let him off the next time I see him. 

Then there's Alice, looking as calm and composed like nothing is ever wrong with the world, with what's happening right now to our guild. She gives me a warm smile, brushing a few strands of her bangs in place. "I found you after your battle with Laxus. Mystogan showed up, but he disappeared not too long after Erza and Natsu came to the scene, which was pretty odd.." She sighs and talks a bit to herself, looking down at her hands that had a few cuts and bruises.

So Mystogan was the one I saw before I passed out, huh? I should really talk to the guy when I have a chance, he's alwaus disappearing off to somewhere, and say my thanks to him.

"Right now, we have to destroy those lacrimas. Laxus had put them up because Erza took down Evergreen and the contestants aren't hostages anymore." At Alice's continuous explanation, I nod my head in understanding.

"But they have this magic that will hurt the attacker with the same amount of magic they put on the lacrima," Blaze adds from beside me.

"Let's not sweat about the details! Let's get to it!" Feeling my magic power having an average amount due to my time of resting just earlier, I think I can take down a few by myself.

Before we got to attacking the lacrimas, we see different kinds of magic go up to the sky and attack them. 

"Well, it seems like we can't lose in this one, either!" Challenged, I tell my siblings with a smirk on my face that I was sure had motivated them even more.

The three of us took down about ten lacrimas altogether; and I've got to admit that I feel even more worse than before. 

All of a sudden, there were various voices in my head. I turn to look at my other siblings, and see that they have this look of confusion, too, but then it all dissolves and we release a sigh when we recognized who's voice is which.

"Good job, everyone." It shouldn't really be coming from me, but I thought that a little bit of support was needed.

" _Arian! You're alright!_ " Several voices whom I recognized as Maki, Gray, and some others call out to me

As we staggered our way back to the guild, I learned more about what happened in the battle while I was doing my own thing. Apparently, Alice and Blaze got stuck in a rune together. Blaze didn't want to attack Alice and so she tried to find a way to undo the rune with her barrier magic, which angered Freed and he punished her for not following the so called rules. Blaze attempted to duel with Freed, but failed as well. It was Mira who beat him later on, using her take over that she hasn't used in years. I should try to ask her for a duel sometimes, hoping that she'll agree, and I'll be seeing her take over for the first time in years.

Evergreen was beaten by Erza, who was turned to normal by Natsu's fire. The contestants were returned to normal after Evergreen was down for the count, and that's how Freed was beaten by Mirajane and Bickslow by Lucy. 

It's the women of our guild that are so strong, huh? Women empowerment for them.

When we come back to the guild, we're reunited with some of our fellow guild members. They were sitting down and resting, knowing that they can't do anything now but place their hopes in Natsu.

Natsu? He has a long way to go, but he's the only one we've got right now. 


	12. Fantasia

**Aice's Point of View**

It had taken awhile for everything to settle down after the battle of Fairy Tail that Laxus had done in a fit of pure rage. Natsu was the one who had beaten Laxus, with some help from that new comer Gajeel. And because Natsu and Gajeel may have overdid it, they were basically walking bandage rolls with the amount of bandages around their body.

"Don't move too much, or else the bandages may rip off," I tell the fire and iron dragon slayer harshly with my arms crossed over my chest. They looked quite hilarious actually, but I contained my laugh because they, mainly Natsu, would make a huge fuss about it. 

Due to the bandage over his mouth, Natsu wasn't able to respond back clearly to my instructions. He simply rolls his eyes and leans into the table behind him like a child. 

"How many times do I have to bandage you up like I'm your mother?" I retorted, shaking my head as I reminisced about those times when I used to bandage Natsu's wounds when we were younger. It was usually someone like Erza or Lisanna, but Erza was too strict and angry while Lisanna was usually with her siblings. And so me, being one of the few members who could actually bandage up the wounded, tend to do it often on Natsu.

I then notice Gajeel looking at me with a puzzled expression. He basically is the same as Natsu, except there's nothing on his mouth to refrain him from talking. 

Natsu then tries to say something, but I couldn't understand him well. He might just be complaining, though, or trying to protest about whatever I just said.

"Pardon?" I questioned him with rasied eyebrows, lowering my upper body to attempt to listen to what Natsu has to say.

"He says that he didn't ask you to." I'm taken aback when the black haired dragon slayer answers. I didn't believe him at first, but it was a Natsu thing to say, and Gajeel didn't look like he was lying.

I look at Natsu, watching as he squints his eyes on me in an agitated manner. "You ungrateful brat!" I exclaimed, shifting my weight on one leg. How rude of him, to tell me that when it's actually beneficial for him.

Erza then comes up front and announces that we shouldn't give master such a hard time anymore. He isn't getting any younger, and making him stressed will not do much good to his health. After she says that, the guild talks about the continuation of Fantasia.

Every year since my siblings and I have joined the guild, we've always had our own float. With our magic, we get to attract and amaze many of the townspeople, so I don't mind joining in every year.

All of a sudden, the guild goes quiet. My eyes sweep the area and I spot the figure of Laxus at the entrance of the guild. 

My blood boils at the simple fact that he even has the guts to show his face to us after what he's done. I was just about to go up to the grandson of master, but then I feel someone gripping my shoulder to stop me from moving.

I turn my head and become face to face with my brother, Arian.

"But Arian, it's Laxus we're talking about!" I protested stubbornly, attempting to get out of his grip miserably. But seeing his serious expression, I stopped trying to get my hands on Laxus.

"Let him be." Arian is actually much more calm than me for once. "I doubt he'd try anything after his failure not too long ago."

He's right about that, and so I give in. "Fine.."

"But where's Maki? We need to--"

"You're not going anywhere near master!!" 

Hearing those words and the familiar voice of our sister, Arian and I avert our attention to the center of the guild. Laxus simply stood there, the other guild members trying to block his path and protesting about his request to see master. But in front of Laxus, is none other than my little sister Maki.

"How can you even show your face to us?!" Maki's voice resounds loudly across the guild hall as she proudly blocked the path of Laxus. "For what you've done, you should b--.."

I spot Levy not too far from Maki, trying to stop her from speaking any further. But her attempts were futile, and it was Erza who was able to stop the roaring guild members.

"That's enough." Her words were simply but so strong and fierce. The whole guild is silenced, and Laxus continues on his way.

However, not everyone follows Erza's first warning. Natsu steps in and blocks Laxus, but what happens next is all a blur to me as I make way to Maki and be by her side. She's irritated, I get that, but nothing is her fault and she needs to know that.

"Maki.." I call out to her, trying to get her attention which she stubbornly doesn't want to give to me. Her gaze diverts to the side where I'm not, and her arms cross over her torso.

"Don't say anything, Alice." Her voice is oddly flat and calm. "I'm not in the mood," she tells me, her head still not moving any time soon to make eye contact with me.

My mouth parts to say something, but I restrain myself back. Maki would never really reprimand me in such a way, so this whole ordeal must be quite serious for her. 

I feel someone's hand on my shoulder, and I turn around to find Cana with a soft pitiful look on her face. "Shouldn't you leave the kid alone for awhile?" She suggests in a unusual soft tone to me. 

I couldn't say yes, but I didn't want to say no either. It was a hard choice, but somehow Cana just gave me the right amount of push to do what I needed to do as a sister. 

"I suppose that she needs her space." A sigh escapes my lips while I moved further away from Maki. This isn't like me, but Maki is slowly growing up and I need to give her the right amount of space for that.

Cana and I then sat down on a bench. She's always been this sort of sister figure to me, and I the same for her. Although we aren't exactly facing the same problems, we have this mutual understanding of being there for each other. I guess it's our thing.

A few moments later, Laxus is seen by everyone in the guild coming out of the infirmary. He has this blank look on his face, but I could see a glimmer of sadness in his eyes. It was almost pitiful, and I couldn't help myself but attempt to approach the blond.

"Laxus." At my call, the said male turns his attention to me. 

The blond releases a heavy sigh. "Look, Alice--"

"There are no need for explanations." Arian joins in from opposite of me, standing tall and proud. 

I couldn't see the look on Laxus' face, so I couldn't tell what he felt at that moment. He didn't say anything else, and then walked away from us and out of the guild.

I went back to my place with Cana, hearing the other members of the guild rejoining about participating in Fantasia.

**⎟▽⎢**

Night time had come upon us eventually. Everyone in the guild prepared for Fantasia after Laxus had left, and here we all are now in our respective places.

The floats began to move forward. Each of the members began to do their thing, showing off their magic powers to the townspeople and other people who were watching for this long awaited event.

Our float was just right in front of Erza. It had a platform in which I'm standing on right now. My three other siblings stood a little bit in front of the platform, ready to show off their magic.

And on cue, Maki began to form our guild's insignia with small rocks. She lifts it high into the air, then Arian and Blaze combined their spells together to aim at the insignia. Rocks flew into all directions, and that's where my barriers came into view. My barriers surrounded the float to have no rocks fly away and hit the townspeople. 

It did hurt me, because my barriers mirror whatever condition or state my physical body has. However, it was all worth it when I witness the smile and cheers from the townspeople.

"Alice Castro!!"

Amidst the crowd, there's a different voice that roars above it. I search for whoever had said my name with such ferociousness, attempting to find the person in this huge crowd.

"Over here, Alice!!"

Turning my head to the right, I spot someone I would never expect to be here for the Fantasia.

And it seems like it isn't just me who's noticed the person. My siblings all turn to me with surprised faces as well.

"... Isn't it that Gaver guy?" Blaze had said for only us in the float to hear.

"It's Gavin!" Maki corrects our blond brother. The corner of her lips then turn upward to a smile, seemimgly enthusiastic upon seeing Gavin.

"And he's here for you, Alice," Arian says next, giving me a knowing look that I can't possibly ignore.

I don't say anything to the three, turning my attention back to the waving Gavin. 

"You're doing great!!" Gavin exclaims while cupping the sides of his mouth with his hands, then cheering some more.

I mouth to him my thanks, not able to contain my smile. It's nice of him to be here, to watch and cheer for us.

Our float then goes passed Gavin, and the show goes on. The last part of our parade would be putting our hands upwards and lifting our thumb and index fingers. It's the Fairy Tail sign, our sign of telling ourselves that we'll always be watching each other wherever we are.

After Fantasia, we all did our part in putting our used things away. The large floats were put away by Mira and Master, and the rest of us members were helping some other townspeople in cleaning up their stalls and such. 

It was nothing, for us wizards. We just used a little bit of magic here and there to clean up. Then, we're on our way back to the guild to have a celebration. It's a yearly thing, and I've attended each party ever since I came into the guild. 

In the bar area, I sat all alone while contemplating about Justice Order and what could they be up to that may possibly harm anyone in the guild. 

Justice Order, that guild, is really a pain to handle. That guild is the reason why we're in hiding and careful of our image. They're the reason why we had to fend for ourselves, why our father died all those years ago. 

Cana had said that she would be right back, but it seems like she's too busy challenging some of our guild mates into a drinking competition. 

While they're there, drinking and having fun and celebrating the success of Fantasia, I can't be put to ease of what's to happen in the near future.

Blaze and Maki are together in Erza's table, along with the rest of Team Natsu and a few others. Arian, meanwhile, seems to be busy amongst the guild members because I could not see a glimpse of him amidst the people and the noise. 

With a sigh, I take a drink from my mug of beer. 

"Alice!"

A voice yells my name from behind me, making me turn half of my body to the person in question. It's Mira, who just finished serving another batch of beer to the others. 

"Someone's asking for one Alice Castro." Her knowing look hints me of who it is. "He's waiting for you outside! Best to not keep him waiting!" She almost sings as she heads off to another table that calls for her attention.

Standing up, I take a deep breath and finish what's little left in the mug. This should hopefully take my thoughts off of Justice Order. 

It's rather windy this evening. That's the first thing I noticed when I stepped foot outside of the guild doors. As I walked further away from the guild, my eyes make out the clear built of Gavin. 

Gavin hears my footsteps, turning his body to face me fully. He has a playful smirk on his face, looking so different from the person I met at Floro Town not so long ago. 

"Yo, Alice! It's been awhile, hasn't it?" He strikes up a conversation, making me smile the tiniest bit. 

"It has, Gavin." I nod my head in agreement. "Which reminds me, what brings you here to Magnolia?" Now is the perfect time to ask him. 

"I heard about the so called amazing Fantasia, and I just knew I had to visit! Remembering that Fairy Tail is taking part is just another bonus for me, though." The cheeky gleam in his eyes doesn't disappear 

He's heard of Fantasia, all the way from Floro Town? That's quite astonishing.

"You're rather informed, aren't you?" 

He shrugs his shoulders, I assume to seem humble. "It's what I do, you know? Never really known anything else other than learning about the happenings all around me." 

At his words, I don't have anything to say. 

That must be nice, though, to be quick in getting information. 

If he's as good as I'm assuming he's presenting to be, then he might just be a great help to Arian and I. 

"Hypothetically speaking, Gavin," I began with a breath, crossing my arms and looking at him serious. 

"Slow down with the big words, Alice." He looks really taken aback, his eyebrows furrowed. 

"Something big happens, outside of Magnolia, outside of Floro Town. Maybe even beyond Fiore. A royal was kidnapped, perhaps, or a known wizard was killed..." I paused, for suspense, and to see how he's taking it so far. 

He's in deep thought. 

"... Would you be able to know about it?"

He blinks, once, then twice. In surprise, I'm sure. 

"Well..." His hands are on his hips as he thinks for a few more moments. 

... Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. He probably can't do it. 

"Hypothetically speaking, yes, actually." 

Now it's my turn to look at him in surprise. 

Gavin cups his chin, humming. "If it's that big of a news, of course! But--" 

That one word made me hold my breath for a split second. "But what?" I ushered him to continue on. 

"--It's not my concern, you know? So what if a royal is killed? If a super known wizard is kidnapped? I don't care, so I won't even dare to try to find out about it. I'll just hear about it from my sources, but I won't care." 

Clasping my hands together, I bite back down a grin begging to slip through the corners of my mouth. The fact that he switched up my words doesn't matter at the moment. 

"Splendid!" 


End file.
